Human Capital magazine Issue 7.8

human capital

HC issue 7.8

PROFILE:

teambuilder:

NISSAN

FREEHILLS

Interim managers: Bridging the divide Recruitment: Equality in hiring practices

White knights Why mature workers matter

Expert insight: Employee communication in a downturn

EDITORIAL Racism, sexism … now ageism?

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t’s sad but true: Australia is lagging far behind other OECD countries when it comes to mature age employment. According to a report from the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre called Experience Works – The Mature Age Employment Challenge, Australia ranks 13th in a list of OECD countries which measured labour force participation rates in the over 55s.

National Seniors chief executive Michael O’Neill said weak age discrimination laws, negative attitudes toward older workers and a lack of incentives for businesses were linked to the low participation rates among the over 55s. But according to Age Discrimination Commissioner Liz Broderick, the problem is pervasive, systemic and accepted – and it begins even younger than first thought. She has been informed in briefings on age discrimination that age 45 is now considered the starting point for ‘mature age’ workers.

By 2020 four in 10 Australian workers will be 45 or older, creating a significant problem for the nation’s future productivity if employers continue to see older workers as ‘unproductive’, ‘unlikely to want or need career development’ or ‘difficult to manage’ – and these are just some of the misconceptions likely to be heard.

Australia cannot afford to have skilled over 45s who want to work being shut out of the workforce. Employers need to work with government, employer groups and unions to increase opportunities for older workers and reduce the barriers which prohibit many from gaining work. Fortunately, there is light on the horizon. This month’s cover story points to best practice organisations overseas and locally, while a separate feature provides some tips on removing bias from recruitment practices.

Perhaps it’s time we all gave ageism the attention that so many unfortunate ‘isms’ have received over the years – including racism and sexism – and stamp it out for good.

In the first person…

“Organisations will have to respond to this if they haven’t already. People will be working longer and unless organisations can create an environment that can attract and retain them they will lose out to competitors” – Alison Monroe, director, SageCo, on mature age strategies (page 12)

“Real change is hard and an interim manager is able to come into an organisation and pull off the band-aid” – Mary Ann North, CEO of Posada Consulting, on just one of the benefits of interim managers (page 26)

“Part of my role was to help drive a significant change program as part of the organisational restructure. As part of the restructure I inherited not just HR but also the legal element” – Sean Edwards, national manager people, culture and legal at Nissan, on organisational restructure (page 46)

editor’s letter issue 7.8

managing director chief operating officer editor journalist production editor contributors

marketing manager marketing coordinator traffic manager design manager designers

photographer senior web developers it/is manager sales director

Mike Shipley George Walmsley Iain Hopkins Daniela Aroche Tim Stewart MatthewsFolbigg Frontier Software Chifley Business School The Next Step Chandler Macleod Group Danielle Tan Jessica Lee Stacey Rudd Jacqui Alexander Ben Ng Lucila Lamas Thilo Pulch Kevin Kim Colin Chan Justin Kennedy

Editorial enquiries

Iain Hopkins tel: +61 2 8437 4703 iain.hopkins@keymedia.com.au

Advertising enquiries Fiona Wissink tel: +61 2 8437 4746 fiona.wissink@keymedia.com.au Sophie Knight tel: +61 2 8437 4733 sophie.knight@keymedia.com.au

subscriptions

tel: +61 2 8437 4731 • fax: +61 2 8437 4753 subscriptions@keymedia.com.au

Key Media

www.keymedia.com.au Key Media Pty Ltd, Regional head office Level 10, 1 Chandos St, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia tel: +61 2 8437 4700 fax: +61 2 9439 4599 Offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Toronto www.hcamag.com Copyright is reserved throughout.

No part of this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should be kept as HC can accept no responsibility for loss.

“The one thing I can’t stand is HR speak that has to be translated into business speak. We are a business team who happen to bring specialist skills to the table to help the business” – Gareth Bennett, director of people and development at Freehills, on siloed HR activity (page 50)

www.hcamag.com

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this issue INSIDE

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12 Cover story: White Knights One upside of the GFC is the wave of appreciation and admiration for mature workers who have seen it all before. Iain Hopkins explores why these white knights are so valuable

22 The wrong way to hire

Fair employment practices are the hallmarks of a great HR department, but being perfectly unbiased is easier said than done. Human Capital talks to the experts on maintaining equality at the hiring stage

Regulars 4 In Step 6 Legal 8 Training & development

9 Corporate Culture 10 HR technology

Interim managers – bridging the divide

As the workforce becomes less entrenched in long-term positions, and companies fight to remain competitive, interim management is exploding.

Human Capital investigates

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Executive education: The sky is the limit

With many industries now demanding advanced qualifications, the Master of Business (MBA) remains popular.

Human Capital helps you select the right course for your needs

44 Expert insight: Communication breakdown?

Tam Sandeman outlines what Australian organisations need to know about managing employee communication during the downturn

manager”; and “I want to report to someone who I respect as a HR professional.” These views are repeated time and again by HR professionals. The attitude is “I can go out and do the tough stuff but I have to be led by someone who I believe in, someone who supports myself and the function.”

instep HR Career Experts

Procurement Page 4

HR - ‘quit but stayed’

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s we approach the end of 2009, one of the big questions for HR leaders will be: ‘has a prisoner mentality developed within my company?’ The International HRD Forum’s 2009 Australian Response to the GFC Survey found that in most businesses, engagement and morale levels were down. Voluntary departures were also down.

Employees have developed a prisoner mentality and have quit their companies mentally, but have physically stayed.

The reality is that just like employees, some HR practitioners have ‘quit but stayed’. In this month’s Instep, we look at some of the drivers of discontent which will influence many HR practitioners to look elsewhere when the market picks up.

As everyone knows by now, in many companies, HR has been asked to be on the front line and implement the ‘hard decisions’ taken by executives (who are sometimes a long way from the action). Pragmatically and with a sense of purpose, the vast majority of HR professionals have managed restructuring and transformational change programs as part of their job, in short time frames and with a strong cost focus. The question is, how much have they been thanked for this effort? If HR professionals are rocky after a stormy period supporting the business, what will throw them out of the boat completely?

Authentic and respected leadership

Undoubtedly the single most important motivator for HR professionals to decide to join or leave a company is the respect and style of the HR leader managing the function. The pressure is really on HR leaders at the moment to deliver the business requirements, as well as ensure that the HR team is led in a way that results in the function being respected.

The fact is that HR professionals want to join teams that are led by respected HR leaders. If HR professionals perceive that their leaders aren’t representing them well to the top team, acting with the utmost integrity or fighting the ‘good fight’ about an agenda that includes a balanced approach to change, then turnover in the HR team is bound to increase in the future.

The words from a small sample of senior professionals described this view: “The person I report to must be of high integrity”; “I need to report to someone who I have a relationship of trust with”; “I want to be able to bounce ideas and concepts with my

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As has been seen often in tough times in the past, decisions are made to drive change through cost. A cost orientation takes over with procurement rising to prominence. ‘Cost, cost, cost’ is the mantra – not exactly empowering for HR professionals who normally make sound decisions weighing both cost and quality.

Line managers with no HR capability

As an apparent vote of no confidence in the HR discipline, at times of stress, companies sometimes vote with their feet and appoint a line manager to HR. As reported in Shortlist recently, “General Motors in the US has appointed an engineering executive with no human resources experience as its new head of HR, as part of a major shake-up of the company’s corporate culture following its bankruptcy in June. The company has also removed the HR seat from its eight-person executive committee.”

The outgoing HR leader who was with the company for over 30 years has been replaced by a manufacturing engineer. The MD of a US industry consultancy believed the appointment reflected General Motor’s desire to bring engineering principles of efficiency and continual improvement into the HR function. The view from this person was, “It’s a positive sign they want to make deep changes in HR and don’t want to draw from the HR community.”

Words cannot describe the horror that this story represents for HR professionals.

Models and ratios

In line with the current economic cycle there is pressure on HR models. Stripping out costs (i.e. head count) is being driven through many companies, particularly global businesses. The story of an Asia Pac HRD losing their whole team to have them go into a shared services model and becoming a sole trader is an extreme but recent example. Many ratios are being blown out. Let’s face it, having one HR professional for hundreds and hundreds of people is no fun, particularly when the company has been used to a higher touch HR model. HR becomes a reactionary ‘triage service’ for the wounded – not a very motivating scenario for HR professionals.

The International HRD Forum’s 2009 Survey indentified engagement in Australia and the risk of a ‘quit but stayed’ mentality as being high. The same applies to HR teams. HR leaders need to have this on their radar or potentially they will experience some pretty significant turnover in the HR function.

Craig Mason is a Director with The Next Step, a specialist consulting practice in the human resources market.

For information call (02) 8256 2500 or email cmason@thenextstep.com.au website: www.thenextstep.com.au

Recent HR Market Moves supplied by The Next Step

Stuart Burhop has accepted the role of Human Resources

Toula Padoa has accepted the role of HR Manager, Melbourne

Derek Duffy has accepted the role of HR Manager, Strategy &

Jodi Sampson has joined Orange Business Services as Human

Victoria Fernandes has been appointed Change &

Integrated Research Limited has appointed Julie Skinner as Human Resources Manager. Previously Julie was with Lenovo Asia Pacific as Human Resource Business Partner, Asia Pacific.

Development Manager with Xstrata Coal. Stuart was previously with Westpac where he held the role of Senior HR Consultant.

Planning, Financial Services with AMP. Prior to this Derek was with Hewitt Associates as a Senior Management Consultant.

Communications Manager with ANZ. Victoria has Australian and International experience gained within organisations such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Accenture, and Barclays Bank.

Theresa Jory has commenced as a Senior Manager, Change

Management & Organisational Design with ANZ. Theresa was previously with Ernst & Young in various roles from 2007.

Peter Kerr has joined ANZ as Head of Learning for ANZ

Institutional Banking. Peter was most recently in the role of Senior Manager Organisational Development & Learning with Ernst & Young in Sydney.

Michelle Lee has commenced as Human Resources Manager

with TAC (Schneider Electric). Previously Michelle was in a Client Consultant role with the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA).

with Minter Ellison Lawyers. Toula’s most recent role was with Russell Kennedy as Human Resources Manager.

Resources Director. She was previously with Nokia in the role of Human Resources Manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Caroline Skipper has joined National Australia Bank as People

& Culture Business Partner – NAB Retail (NSW/ACT) and NAB Broker. Caroline was previously with Old Mutual Australia Group where she held two General Manager HR roles from 2007.

BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) has appointed Peter Stelmach as Employee Relations/Industrial Relations Manager.

Peter was previously Group Employee Relations Manager with CSR Limited.

Doug Wilson has recently joined Thales Naval Division as

Human Resources Director. Doug was previously with AMP as Head of Remuneration & HR Operations.

By supplying Market Moves, The Next Step is not implying placement involvement in any way.

www.hcamag.com

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issue 5.10

news

Page Legal Experts

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Employers Warned to Avoid Adverse Action

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new course of action is available against employers under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Act), which commenced on 1 July 2009, known as ‘adverse action’.

Although the concept has received little publicity so far, it is vital for employers to be aware of the possibly onerous requirements they could be subject to under the new laws. This is largely a result of the new broadly defined concept of a ‘workplace right’.

Essentially, an employer is prohibited from taking adverse action against another person based on their ‘workplace right’, or because of their race, sex, colour, sexual preference, age, disability, marital status, family or carer’s responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin (subject to inherent requirements/defences that exist under current discrimination legislation).

What is a workplace right?

A person has a workplace right if he or she is: yy Entitled to the benefit of, or has a role or responsibility under a workplace law, instrument or order of an industrial body. yy Able to initiate or participate in a process or proceedings under a workplace law or instrument. yy Able to make a complaint or inquiry to a person or body having capacity under a workplace law to seek compliance with that law or workplace instrument. yy An employee who is able to make a complaint in relation to his or her employment.

What is an adverse action?

The Act sets out numerous circumstances which may result in an employer taking adverse action against an employee, including if the employer: yy Dismisses the employee. yy Injures the employee in his or her employment. yy Alters the position of the employer to the employee’s prejudice. yy Discriminates between the employee and other employees of the employer.

However, the new provisions do not only protect employees. An organisation may also be liable for an adverse action claim if they

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refuse to employ or discriminate against a prospective employee.

The action can even extend to include independent contractors, prospective contractors and union officers or members.

Further, the scope of an adverse action extends to threatening to take action, organising to take action, coercion, undue influence or knowingly or recklessly making a false and misleading representation about the workplace rights of another, or the exercise of such rights.

Implications for employers

The new adverse action provisions are likely to have significant ramifications for employers, as they potentially expand the scope of discrimination and victimisation actions which were traditionally confined to the relevant State and Federal anti-discrimination laws and enforcement bodies.

The provisions also provide employees who have not completed the relevant minimum period of employment or who are paid above the high income threshold with an alternative avenue for recourse, and extends to cover actions that fall short of dismissal such as performance management processes, demotions or threats of dismissal.

Accordingly, the provisions allow employees to pick and choose between actions based on likelihood of success, and allow avenues for recourse where employees potentially would have been barred from recourse under the unfair dismissal laws.

A claim may be made to Fair Work Australia to intervene and deal with the dispute, with the option for further recourse to the Federal Court or Federal Magistrates if unsuccessful. This creates substantial exposure to the employer to civil penalty provisions invoking fines of up to $6,600 for an individual and $33,000 for a corporation, in addition to the remedy provided to the employee or other individual bringing the action.

What should employers do?

While employers wait with baited breath for the crucial first test cases to give some guidance as to the adverse action provisions, it is wise to err on the side of caution.

To minimise exposure to an adverse action claim, it is recommended that employers: yy Implement, ensure compliance with and consistently enforce policies and procedures, regarding grievance and dispute resolution, discrimination, bullying and harassment. yy Implement clear guidelines and procedures to be followed during the recruitment and selection process to safeguard against adverse action claims by job applicants. yy Train employees regarding what constitutes adverse action and implement appropriate complaint avenues, including how to deal with complaints and enforce policies and procedures. yy Ensure appropriate documentation of workplace decisions to substantiate actions in the event that adverse action is alleged.

Fay Calderone is a Senior Associate with MatthewsFolbigg Lawyers.

For more information call: (02) 9806 7412 or e-mail: fayc@matthewsfolbigg.com.au

Training & Development

Page 8 Professional Development Experts

TIPS ON SUPPORTING YOUR EMPLOYEE through AN MBA PROGRAM

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hen CEOs and heads of HR were asked what they thought of staff doing MBAs, they said: “It can take your best people out of the workforce just as they are becoming most productive. The dollar cost can be very high in salary and fees, and there is every chance that for the individual an MBA represents a chance to change career and move on sometime after completion.”

They also indicated that if they wanted to make a bigger impact on enterprise performance with scarce dollars, they would put groups of high potential employees through shorter programs focused on the management changes the whole enterprise cried out for.

But none ruled out seeking people with MBA skills, let alone esteeming people with the grit and intelligence to complete an MBA. All CEOs knew that discouraging high potentials from MBA programs risks losing good people, and sends the very dangerous message to all staff that when it comes to business and management disciplines, conceptual rigour is not valued.

So, how can enterprises reconcile the financial and opportunity costs, and the risks of supporting individuals through MBA programs with the very evident demand for them and their real benefits?

The answer is about enterprise value for money.

Invest in what’s right

Not all MBA programs are alike. They are meet very different industry and career needs. So only invest when a program is right for your enterprise.

1. Ensure the basics are covered – look for units in finance, economics, people, strategy, risk, contract or business law.

2. Specialties must be relevant to your enterprise – for example, as the finance sector has been the most avid recruiter of MBAs, go for units in finance disciplines. Others include specialist units in government or health or education while Chifley focuses on management for engineering professionals with units like project management and innovation.

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3. Look for evidence of current industry experience in faculty. A good research record is a fine thing, but cannot replace real world engagement.

4. Delivery – part-time and distance options allow employees to work while they study, and these options add the advantage that learning can be brought back into the workplace in real time.

Good distance programs allow employees to learn as they move locations within the enterprise. If you have doubt about the quality of the distance experience, ask to look over materials and the online experience.

Support goes a long way

Support the individual at the right time and in the right way.

1. Motivation is vital here. You should probe carefully what your employee expects from learning formally about business and management. Surprisingly, graduates who initially thought an MBA will help them move up or out have learnt to become better at their job, which benefits the enterprise. A career development plan will help identify motivation and capacity to achieve, as well as ensure that the decision to support reflects your organisation’s goals.

2. The form of support also counts. Very few enterprises nowadays give individuals a blank cheque. The smart enterprise is more likely to co-fund, perhaps by way of reimbursing progressively and partially for programs passed (and helping) choose which programs along the way. Part-time and especially distance programs make co-funding easier, because they offer step-bystep measurement of achievement, break-points (like graduate certificates) to allow the employee and the enterprise to focus on family or a work project for a period, and cost less.

Ultimately, the choices are in your hands. It is important to find the balance that will benefit both your employee and organisation.

Contributed by Neil Edwards Neil is Chief Executive of Chifley Business School.

Phone 1300 CHIFLEY | 1300 244 353 Visit www.chifley.edu.au

Corporate Culture Column Evolving your Workforce

Page 09

Position your people and culture as you prepare for the upside of the recession

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t’s been said that the financial crisis was considered the ‘financial Armageddon.’ But from an optimistic perspective, it was really just part of a very long pattern. It has also been said that it is something we are all capable of responding to. The latter is true, but it requires a very disciplined and structured approach.

One of the critical response areas is revisiting your culture and your people’s level of focus.

Often under economic stress, executives tend to stop focusing on people development and culture. As we experience the beginning of the upside to the recession, leaders and organisations alike will be reliant on their people, and will need a supporting culture to enable their people to carry out the strategy. So it is essential that your people are ready and focused on the task.

Before we turn our attention to the culture and the people of the organisation, let’s take a minute to review what we as leaders need to be doing. The behaviour of the company’s leaders in this time will determine its future for a very long time. To quote Fortune Magazine: “Every instinct tells you to decide more slowly [in times of change] yet it’s vital to decide more quickly.” As a leaders, it is essential that you are highly visible during times of change. Its critical that you act quickly on decisions, show that you are confident about the way forward and ensure you have an articulated story that puts the crisis and the future in context.

You must acknowledge the decisions and consequences of those decisions during the tough times, the lessons learnt and the way forward.

Culture is the product of all the messages people within a company receive about ‘how we operate around here’. Following the decisions and actions which set organisations up to survive during the crisis, there will be consequences for your culture either by default or by design. As we prepare to work through the early stages of the upturn, clarity of cultural expectations and behaviours are essential – accompanied with a clear strategic direction of the short, medium and long term. Your people must also be very clear on what is going to be measured as a success, both personally and organisationally.

Organisations and their leaders will already have been stretched to their maximum limits during the last few quarters.

This will continue to happen as we start to see hints of an upturn on the horizon. Research has established that what turns average performers into great performers is a process of being continually pushed just beyond current abilities, and then responding to the new challenges with focused efforts to overcome them – accompanied by feedback about the results. Leaders must be prepared to push themselves and their people past their comfort zones. In addition you must have discipline, share and review facts and information, make some decisions on the spot and review performance constantly.

It is important that leaders discuss, debate and decide on four or five critical cultural qualities they believe are required to achieve the strategy. This needs to be carried out as a rigorous process where a full range of cultural options are explored. This message then needs to be aligned to the strategy and embedded into the organisation and constantly measured.

Immediate practical steps to take: start – stop – keep

An immediate and practical step you can take is to use a ‘start – stop – keep’ framework to define specific behaviors you need people to adopt. Ask: ‘what do we need to start doing that will have a direct positive effect on our business?’; ‘what do we need to stop doing immediately because it is counter-productive?’; and ‘what do we need to keep doing that has always worked for us?’

For those organisations that are focused and remain committed and composed, there comes a moment in time when critical mass is achieved; a time where enough people are demonstrating the required behaviors. This in turn supports the culture to be resilient in the face of economic stress and ambiguity.

The precise nature of the opportunity that is in front of us is relatively clear, in that during a recession, we push everyone past the limits of his or her current abilities. This places us all on the first step towards turning average performers into great performers – whether we take the next step is up to each of us to decide.

Craig McCallum

www.chandlermacleod.com

General Manager Marketing: Specialist Recruitment & Consulting Services Tel: 02 9269 8879 Craig.McCallum@chandlermacleod.com

www.hcamag.com

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issue 5.10

international

HR TECHNOLOGY

Page 10

Generating HR Reports Question:

We are about to go to market for a new HR Information System.

We have identified reporting as a key requirement. What should we expect from a new system?

Answer:

You have correctly identified the importance of reporting. It’s one thing to process the payslips and manage HR data for an organisation. It is quite another matter to be able to report on that data in a meaningful manner as determined by the user in order to understand and manage the business.

Often the reporting capability within the HR Information System will be the defining factor in determining the selection of a vendor. In the final analysis, it will be the information provided by the system which will form the basis of considered decisionmaking by management.

Reporting typically covers standard reports and ad hoc reports which tend to be specific to HR and payroll. There are also ‘business intelligence’ reports which may combine and compare HR and payroll data with data from other business systems. Users should take a critical look at the full reporting suite of each HRIS under review, to determine which offering best suits their specific business needs.

Firstly, it is reasonable to expect your system to include a wide variety of standard management reports to meet the majority of any organisation’s reporting requirements. Your research should highlight those HRIS vendors laying claim to 200+ inbuilt, predesigned standard reports within the basic system. These standard reports should also satisfy your statutory reporting requirements.

Users should be able to schedule reports to run at a predetermined time and to be automatically e-mailed to nominated staff. Alternatively, users may locate reports by selection through the HRIS system itself or from an Employee/Managers SelfService kiosk.

Typically, the kiosk will hold reports for managers in a designated folder where, subject to security, they can access reports relating to their functional area and detailing information restricted to their particular field of operation.

Secondly, an ad hoc report writer should be available. Ideally, the system will have its own inbuilt report writer rather than

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relying on third party reporting tools. The key attribute of the report writer should be ease-of-use. Users should be able to design reports tailored to meet their exact requirements, in the required format, using data/information selected from the database and with a minimum of effort.

The employment of drag and drop (point and click) of data fields into the report layout and the creation of bespoke menus to suit reporting objectives is perhaps the simplest method of compiling the report. There ought to be no boundaries to the scope or number of reports one can create.

Reports should be able to include complex computations with users able to perform mathematical and logical operations on data fields and embed results in reports.

In addition to printing, it is also common practice to be able to view reports on the screen. A good reporting tool will allow reports to be exported to and published in any word processing and spreadsheeting software. An advantage of publishing reports in Word and Excel is that a user can further manipulate them and add additional comments and information.

A third level of reporting may be available through the use of .XML reports that give users the opportunity to export the report output into a predefined spreadsheet template. This way, data can be presented as plain spreadsheet data, a formatted report or even as a pivot table and pivot chart.

Of course, the ability to further manipulate reports may be seen as a risk by raising concerns about security and the integrity of the report. To get around this legitimate concern, it should also be possible to publish your reports in an indelible format such as AdobeTM Acrobat’s PDF format.

In this instance the predefined template can also be in a format appealing to those seeking ‘board’ or ‘executive’ standard presentation through the use of colour, charts, logos and special fonts. Once again, this option should be available within the basic system.

Finally, for those seeking to enter the world of business intelligence, the availability of reports presented in spreadsheets or .XML will allow external business intelligence software such as WebFOCUS, Crystal, Impromptu and Business Objects to be utilised allowing drill down and slice and dice analysis. Many vendors will also offer integration tools to enable direct access to HRIS data.

Reporting is perhaps the single most important criteria when sourcing a Human Resources Information System.

Rex Whitehead Business Development Manager Frontier Software Pty Ltd (08) 8211 6333 www.frontiersoftware.com

news issue 7.8

NEWS

If I ever lose my faith Global Mindset Survey

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Migration legislation changes imminent C

hanges to Australian migration legislation will come into effect on 14 September 2009. The changes deal with 457 business sponsorship: they revise the obligations owed to sponsored employees, introduce civil penalties for noncompliant sponsors and modify the process for obtaining permission to employ people from overseas. Significantly, the new obligations will apply to all existing visa holders, and will include the requirement to pay a market salary and to keep certain records that are to be given to Immigration officials on request. Other aspects of the

new system will include greater sharing of information between a sponsor, a visa holder and other state or Commonwealth bodies involved in policing work place relations and occupational health and safety laws.

In the lead up to these changes, employers will need to review their current practices to ensure that they will be compliant once the new laws are in place. Migration experts Fragomen will be holding a series of workshops to discuss these changes. For more information, e-mail sydneyinfo@fragomen.com

Being a social butterfly could kickstart your career

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recent survey has highlighted the importance of upskilling in order to remain employable and revealed networking to be a key priority for many professionals.

The report by Robert Walters, titled Employee Insights Survey, polled 560 Australian professionals on what they believed to be the most important strategy to remain employable in the current economic climate.

Twenty-nine per cent of workers overall voted upskilling to be the most vital strategy, followed by networking (18%).

Jen Harwood, a motivational speaker, author and coach, said that networking is important for all professions. She added that honing the skill is particularly important in the professional services industries – whether you’re looking to improve business, snag a promotion or simply uncover another opportunity within the field.

“In a climate like this, you need to generate new business and create new opportunities and you do that by networking and talking to people,” she said.

“People remember people, and through networking people are going to remember you and think of you for that promotion or that job. Just going to a training seminar to learn something new or simply doing your job isn’t going to create the same opportunities,” said Harwood.

Networking tips from Jen Harwood: always carry business cards ask people for their details share stories about success that your clients have had (don’t share names or confidential information, but highlight your achievements) • go to events where your clients are or invite some clients to come along to an event, because they will bring attention to your achievements • • •

oday’s employees believe in themselves, but not necessarily in their leaders, according to the Global Mindset Survey released today by business performance consultancy, rogenSi. The survey sampled more than 2,000 employees worldwide and assessed the mindset of people in response to the economic upheaval of the past year.

Overall, the results provide a picture of how employees view themselves, their leaders, the organisations in which they work and their future opportunities.

Dr Clark Perry, rogenSi director, said: “There is little doubt that the economic downturn of the last 12 months has affected the mindset of the global workforce – we all know it has been a tough and fearful market out there.

“Our survey shows that these conditions have created a crisis of confidence in our business leaders. Employees remain confident in their own abilities, but doubt senior management.

“As a result, many employees are losing faith in the ability of their organisations to be successful. Companies are losing productivity because their employees are absolving themselves of taking responsibility for their results. Rather, they see the economy and their leaders to blame for poor performance. This negatively affects their mindset and therefore lowers their commitment to execute strategy.

Ultimately, this can have a major impact on an organisation’s bottom line.”

The results show teams that truly want to engage and deliver exceptional results, but don’t know where to turn for the answers. “Now, more than ever before, leaders need to find new ways to connect with and inspire their people at a deeper, more meaningful level. There needs to be an investment in developing the employee’s mindset so they can gain a more resourceful attitude and embrace change.

The alternative is to risk high levels of disengagement and subsequent performance decrements,” said Dr Perry.

According to rogenSi, leaders must learn to adapt their leadership style in times of adversity. In tougher times, they need to pay extra attention to ensuring their team members are clear about which tasks they should be focusing on. www.hcamag.com

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cover story

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cover story

issue 7.8

WHITE

KNIGHTS One upside of the GFC is the wave of appreciation and admiration for mature workers who have seen it all before.

Iain Hopkins explores why these white knights are so valuable

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ometimes it takes a burning platform for the corporate world – and the wider world – to sit up and take notice. The burning platform for recognition and acknowledgement of the benefits of attracting, retaining and engaging mature workers has been blazing away for some time.

In recent years the skills shortage forced the hand of employers to look at alternative talent pools. Now it’s the GFC, and the realisation for many younger workers – and even some CEOs – that they are in unchartered waters. They are slowly realising there are mature workers in their ranks who have great knowledge

and insights to help. “We had an employer recently say to us that mature workers in their workplace were the ‘white knights’ of the crisis. They’re really coming into their own, and are being valued like never before,” says Alison Monroe, director of ageing workforce consultancy, SageCo. Of course, there is also a sense of urgency as the mass exodus towards retirement continues apace for thousands of Australian workers. How well prepared are Australian employers?

A mixed bag

Dramatic inroads have been made in the diversity strategies of many organisations in recent years, and this includes their www.hcamag.com

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cover story

“In many consulting firms people don’t really retire. When people leave they are retained on the payroll, they have business cards and an email address – and they are considered part of the knowledge bank of the organisation for future projects” – Catriona Byrne

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policies regarding mature workers. But Monroe admits there is still a lot to be done. She says there are generally four different employer segments, and each one responds to the attraction and recruitment of mature workers differently.

SMEs as a whole are extremely positive about the recruitment of mature workers, says Monroe. “They appreciate the versatility, the loyalty and the fact that mature workers bring such a wide knowledge base and experience. Over the last few years Adage [SageCo’s sister job board] has found placement of mature workers in SMEs to be highly successful.”

Recruitment agencies are an area where ageism does seem to exist, unfortunately. Monroe says there are several reasons for this. Firstly, there is the industry profile – the average age of most employees in this sector is under 35.

“There has been a slight shift, but this is mainly in niche agencies which tend to be owned and operated by more experienced recruiters,” says Monroe.

To compound the problem, Monroe’s fellow director at SageCo, Catriona Byrne, adds that younger recruiters rarely have the ability to influence the client employer. “Younger recruiters will often say that the employer has specified they only want someone under 35 for a role, and they don’t have the wherewithal to go back and influence the agenda. Seasoned recruiters can actually talk clients through the benefits and sway the argument. It’s not that young recruiters are ageist it’s just they often don’t have the tools and ability to influence the agenda,” she says.

Larger corporates, the third category, again provide a mixed bag. There are extremely favourable industry segments – financial services is an obvious example – where most employers have a mature workforce strategy. They have a desire to closely align with their customer base and have been quite vocal in responding to the mature age challenge. On the flipside is the Information & Technology and Telecommunication industry, which remains on the back foot. “As a whole

we’ve seen a seismic shift in adoption of policies and strategies over the past five years. The first year of our operation was education and awareness, having conversations with CEOs, HRDs, organisational development teams and getting them on the same page in terms of the challenges they will be facing. It’s now unusual if we talk to an organisation that doesn’t have some plan of attack,” says Monroe.

Government and not-for-profits have also led the way. “Organisations like The Salvation Army have taken great strides.

They have been awarded Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Mature Age Worker Champion Status, and they were in the Adage Top 20 in 2007. In terms of government initiatives, an example is the NSW public sector, which has a state workforce plan for 2008–2012. EEO and diversity principals feature very strongly,” says Monroe.

Stumbling blocks

What’s holding employers back?

According to Peter Tanner, managing director of HR consulting at Randstad, the challenge is three-fold. First, he says, employers simply need to be open to employing mature-age workers. The myths to throw out are that older workers are less flexible and won’t fit in. Research shows that the opposite is true. Only 2% of respondents of a recent Randstad survey said mature age workers were the most difficult generation to manage – in comparison with 17% of Gen X and 35% of Gen Y workers.

Research has shown that mature age workers are also more loyal, with average tenures of five to six years compared to between 18 months and four years for Generations X and Y. According to both the World Health Organisation and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, they also take fewer sick days.

It is also untrue that mature age workers are less productive. One of the most obvious qualities older employees possess in greater measure than their

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younger counterparts is experience. And the adage is right: there’s no substitute for it.

Secondly, employers need to get serious about attracting and retaining mature age workers. This means getting creative with work structures. “Matureage workers place a premium on work-life balance, so they look at job sharing or flexible working. When you have these options in place, make them known – this is important for retention. Often an employee will leave a full-time job because they can’t see an alternative,” says Tanner.

Thirdly, Tanner says that employers need to maintain relationships with the people who do leave their organisations.

“Mature age people might leave a job for another opportunity or a change of environment, but may later be willing to consider a return to the security and rewards of a familiar role. Not burning your bridges can open up other employment options, as former employees can be hired back on a short-term or project-specific basis. Alumni programs are a good way of putting this into practice by helping you reach someone who knows the business when you really need them.”

First steps

Prior to any meaningful engagement of mature workers, a demographic analysis is essential if organisations are to accurately diagnose potential risks, challenges and commercial opportunities. They also need to benchmark that analysis against the broader workforce to see how they differ and whether there are opportunities they’re missing in terms of the broader workforce. “Many organisations do this at the start of their age management journey, including IAG, AMP, and Deloitte. It’s the same story with the data as well – what does it really mean? When you know you’ve got 1,000 mature workers who are over 55 and will retire within 10 years at a cost of 1.5 times salary, the numbers start to speak volumes. That’s when the executive heads will turn in the right direction,” says Monroe.

Byrne adds that the analysis provides a decision-making platform because it becomes more than a generic group. “You really want to be able to work this agenda in your organisation. For example, an engineering firm may establish that it has a high knowledge risk for its bridge building experts. You would want this group of people to think about their working intentions. It gives you clarity around the type of interventions you’re going to make.

Without that analysis, you can make the mistake of having very broad sweeping initiatives that are nice but don’t achieve anything,” she says.

Catalyst for change

Any diversity strategy must be managed carefully or else it risks doing the opposite of what it promises, creating internal conflict and even reducing organisational performance. In other situations, a strategy may resolve one diversity problem, such as under-representation of a demographic group, but simultaneously create new problems, such as conflict between groups.

It helps that many mature age policies can be easily adapted to suit all. Byrne notes that an initiative such as flexibility, which started out in the domain of mothers returning to work, has extended to parents, younger people, and of course older workers transitioning to retirement.

While there may be different ‘reasons’ for taking up flexible work, the concept does not change according to demographics.

“It’s important for organisations to have ‘reason-neutral’ offerings,” she suggests.

Best practice organisations are recognising this fact and are providing the tools and opportunities for employees to craft their own career and determining what their tenure will look like in that organisation, rather than attempting to fit diverse people into a set plan.

For age management leader British Telecom, it was the organisation’s ageing workforce that acted as the catalyst to respond to other demographic groups. BT started by providing mature workers access to retirement planning seminars, but

issue 7.8

Questions to ask • Does the spread of age in your workforce broadly mirror your customer base? If there is a wide gap, is this a good thing? What do your customers think?

• Do your staff believe that the stereotypes about older workers are true? If so, what does this say about the quality of your people’s thinking about other business problems?

• What is the experience of bright young people in your organisation? Do they feel that they are able to interact with older managers in using their skills?

• Do you know about attrition patterns? Does your business show age-based attrition peaks that should be analysed?

• Has your business thought about the business opportunities flowing from Australia’s ageing population?

quickly recognised that regardless of career stage or age, all employees would benefit from these planning tools. Locally, NAB has also recognised this (see case study).

Act now

Of course, the sharpest focus must apply for those for those at the end of their tenure with an organisation. With retirement looming, often there are only short time horizons to act. Loss of ‘organisational know-how’ is a real danger for many organisations. Many people approaching retirement have had long tenures with their organisations – in some cases 45 or 50 years – and many are genuine subject matter experts. The bridge engineer is again a useful example.

With a 40-year career, that engineer may be the ‘go-to’ person for all things relating to bridges, yet he is retiring in six months. “Those combined factors create a very intense and unusual scenario. www.hcamag.com

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Case study: NAB Human Capital talks to Carolyn White, head of inclusion and diversity for business banking, NAB, about her organisation’s mature age programs Human Capital: How do your mature age programs fit in with NAB’s overall diversity programs?

Carolyn White: Any diversity program needs to be about the whole population – it needs to be about everyone in your workplace, and also everyone in your customer base and the community you’re looking to do business with. We’re an ageing community, but the economic climate has taken some focus away from this fact. We try not to see our diversity programs so much as a policy but rather who we are and who our people are – so everyone gets an opportunity to participate in meaningful work the way they want to.

HC: What do yo think mature age workers bring to the table?

CW: They bring so much. They have a wealth of experience and knowledge that we should be trying to tap into, especially as many of them have witnessed economic downturns before.

One of the key things l learnt was several years ago when there was a lot of talk about the Y2K bug. It could have been disastrous, but the clamour for people who knew previous binary codes and other systems was phenomenal. We need to make sure we understand the unique qualities that everybody brings so we’re able to not only retain these people but attract them.

HC: How important is demographic analysis of your workforce?

CW: 12–18 months ago we didn’t understand the needs of our mature age workers. We set about trying to understand some of the things that matter purely to that group. We discovered – through a variety of forums and focus groups – that they were very concerned about helping their children realise the great Aussie dream of home ownership in a property market that is skyrocketing. We developed a mortgage savings plan for the children of our employees. When you go to buy a home

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the standard would be a 20% deposit.

If you don’t have a 20% deposit we ask for a mortgage insurance premium to be paid, which allows you to borrow up to 90–95%. With the children of our employees, as long as they meet the ability to repay – because we want to do this ethically and supportively – we will waive the mortgage insurance and also drop the fees on several of our entry home loan products. On an average home loan in Victoria – about $270,000 – that would be a saving of around $5,000. We’ve been able to do that in a way so that it doesn’t have any impact to the employee’s salary or anything else.

HC: You also offer life planning. Can you tell us about that?

CW: Given that we have such a large employee base we need to be able to trial programs that can be accessed by all people rather than specific groups.

We hosted a life planning session that an external company facilitated, which involved a lot of life planning processes.

We don’t want people getting to retirement age and saying, ‘I haven’t thought about what I want to do’. We found many people hadn’t talked to their partners about what they were thinking, so we provided them with some tools to focus on life planning. We’ve taken the insights from the people who have participated in the life planning program, and we’re in the process of developing The Academy through our learning centre. This is a program that will be available online for all employees to access tools, to have thinking prompts about how to move towards retirement, and perhaps change the concept of what retirement actually means.

HC: Do you think the concept of retirement is changing?

CW: Retirement 30 years ago meant the end of a tenure at a company. You see less of that these days. We need to think differently about this debate. Hopefully though our actions we can influence the community at large. The hardwired thinking about retirement, thinking ‘when I retire I finish work completely’, or that says, ‘I can’t possibly go from being

Carolyn White

a senior manager into a reduced role’ – that’s bigger than us as an organisation but we can help stir the debate.

HC: You’re talking about transitioning into retirement CW: We’ve been bringing people back in consultant roles or in trainee roles for many years. We’ve found that to be invaluable. It shows it can be done – to have people say ‘I’d love to come back and do six months worth of work, and then I do need to go away because my wife and I have a trip planned’.

Previously, loyalty to a company was ingrained into Boomers. They were loyal until they moved into retirement. Gen X and Y are helping us rethink that.

HC: How do you handle knowledge management – do you try to capture some of the knowledge of older workers before they retire?

CW: I’d like to say ‘yes we do have something formal in place,’ but we don’t. But I also wonder if it needs to be formalised for it to happen? A lot of diversity initiatives come back to having genuine contact with people and being authentic in conversations with them.

We’ve had great examples of where we’ve had amazing input and transfer of knowledge from people who have left our business and moved into project roles before they’ve finished up. We try to take advantage of their skills – which sounds awful – but they also enjoy that they are seen as such a knowledge base.

It’s an acknowledgment of the breadth of knowledge they have. We do see longterm opportunities for people to come back as coaches or mentors. We’re not there yet but it’s on the agenda.

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Organisations must understand where and how they can intervene. Stepping back from that they can then say ‘we’ve also got a 27 year old who’s only been with us two years who represents a great risk of knowledge loss’. But you must start with the burning platform,” says Monroe.

Byrne adds that for long tenure employees, not all knowledge is something to retain – it’s about defining what’s important to the organisation and then determining how to transition that knowledge. “There’s an element of what we call ‘artefacts’ that we need to produce from someone’s knowledge to make it more explicit – things like documentation or process mapping or even a simple Q&A. As for the skills – how do people develop them? It’s a guided experience – perhaps with mentoring and coaching –

allowing a platform for technical experts, sages or gurus to sit with a bunch of people and ‘chew the fat’ for a couple of hours. A lot of information can be passed on in that informal way,” she says.

Monroe, who recently visited British Telecom, asked HR reps if there was one single success factor for the organisation.

The response? Creating a conversation culture. “You must get people talking to people. Don’t rely on information management systems and technology to transfer knowledge. That is a tool but the platform has to be creating connections in the workforce and creating that conversation culture,” she says.

“Your knowledge is your advantage,” Byrne adds. “In many consulting firms people don’t really retire. When people leave they are retained on the payroll,

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“Mature-age workers place a premium on work-life balance, so they look at job sharing or flexible working” – Peter Tanner

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they have business cards and an e-mail address – and they are considered part of the knowledge bank of the organisation for future projects.”

Potential pitfalls

“Organisations will have to respond to this if they haven’t already.

People will be working longer and unless organisations can create an environment that can attract and retain them they will lose out to competitors” – Alison Monroe

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Meaningful conversations will shed light on what mature age workers are planning.

It may also highlight employees who have, or will have, carer responsibilities that will affect their employment. Juliet Bourke, partner at Aequus Partners, says flexibility has been adopted by many organisations as being the most logical option for retaining mature workers.

However, research conducted by Aequus has revealed there is still a disconnect between the theory and practice of flexible work – and part of the problem may lie with mature workers themselves. The research shows that during the GFC many organisations have asked employees to take periods of leave or drop their hours by 20% – and the biggest uptake has been by mature workers. “You would expect parents to take it up, but it’s been an unexpected take up by mature age workers – men in particular – and that’s highlighted the gap between the aspirations of flexibility for those transitioning to retirement and the reality. Full-time work is associated with commitment and professionalism and being part of the team. These mature age workers want to feel all that, but still need to work flexibly. It’s been a mindset shift for mature age workers themselves to recognise they’re still committed to the game if they take these options,” she says.

Another potential problem, which will only be exacerbated as the increase to the pension age is phased in, is the actual design of jobs themselves. Bourke notes that many jobs have an “inherent physicality”, which requires a level of fitness or physical capability. She cites a hotel chain that attempted to recruit mature age workers for its housekeeping staff. This plan worked well until the performance indicators – consisting

Increasing awareness Aequus Partners has tracked the rising prevalence of mature age initiatives in organisations.

• In 2003 only 25% of best practice organisations included age as part of their diversity initiatives. In 2008 this figure had increased to 55%.

• In terms of collecting the data itself, in 2003 this information was collected by 87% of organisations. In 2008 this had increased to 92%.

• In addition, The Australian Bureau of Statistics predicts between now and 2016 over 85% of all new employment growth will be in the plus 40 age group, with only 7% amongst those 35 years and below.

• The Australia Institute found that most Baby Boomers expect to work after retirement. And this is not purely out of necessity – 17% want to work because of job satisfaction, and 38% just want to keep busy.

primarily of the number of rooms made-over – were analysed. It appeared these older workers were not reaching their performance targets. However, management had not factored in that these performance indicators had been established based on the benchmarks set by 25-year-old workers. “We need to look at where we’ve built a level of physicality into jobs. It’s actually not needed anymore – many jobs can be assisted. That will really come to the fore in the healthcare sector, when nurses no longer need to lift heavy weights. If we want to retain those mature age workers we have to look at design of work,” she says.

It’s not just job design; age bias can exist everywhere, including recruitment practices. Managers may need training

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to identify and combat unconscious bias.

“There may be prejudices on both sides,” says Bourke. “For managers, it may be identifying how they can employ someone who is older than themselves. The mature age worker may also think, ‘I’ve done this before, I know what I’m doing’.”

Measuring effectiveness

A weakness for most diversity initiatives – not just ageing workforce initiatives – is measurement and metrics. It is essential for HR to understand the metrics and business drivers for any initiative.

“Simply having statements of diversity inclusion will not deliver desired outcomes,” says Bourke.

“What we really need to develop is KPIs for it. We’ve found that only 23% of best practice organisations link their diversity programs to a manager’s

progress or performance appraisal. You can have aspirations and put in place training programs, but to really get the added ‘oomph’ required for people to be personally motivated to overcome their own stereotypes or biases, you need to signal value by building some accountabilities into it,” she adds.

Stand-alone statistics also help. BT has a work-from-home project that has been taken up by 15,000 employees (out of a total workforce of 107,000).

According to Monroe, the organisation has been able to quantify a cost saving of £6,000 per annum for each home-based worker. These numbers get attention.

“HR professionals need to find the lever within their organisation. Is it reducing turnover? Is it extending working life and pushing retirement back? Is it cost savings around absenteeism? It may be a customer

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statistic. We worked with one organisation where the churn rate in their customer base was highest in the over 50s category.

Their response to that was to create a more balanced recruitment program and start hiring mature workers. As a result, the churn diminished,” she says.

If the stats don’t convince, also consider that mature age initiatives are significant retention tools, particularly for mid-career workers who will be more likely to stay if they see others with a career path and are paid due respect as they ‘grow old gracefully’ with the organisation.

“Organisations will have to respond to this if they haven’t already. People will be working longer and unless organisations can create an environment that can attract and retain them they will lose out to competitors,” Monroe concludes. HC

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opinion – corporate wellness

Finger on the pulse Investing in the health of your employees can improve business success, but the benefits differ according to age, writes Michael Stone

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here is a growing body of research which shows that corporate wellness is essential for organisational performance. Clear links between workplace wellness and metrics such as organisational profitability, employee engagement and staff retention mean that workplace health and wellness is no longer a ‘soft’ issue, but one that is critical to ongoing business success.

Further, the current economic downturn and the pressure for organisations to reduce headcount while maximising productivity means that the business case for cost-effective employee health and well-being is stronger than ever.

The question that I am often asked by organisations these days is “What sort of program or benefits should we be offering?” The ‘one size fits all approach’ won’t work, but there is often a lack of clarity about what really has the biggest impact in any given workplace. As a starting point, I usually get organisations to think about what they are really trying to achieve, the demographic profile of employees, and the types of challenges and issues that staff are currently facing.

When it comes to what appeals to employees across different generations, there are no simple formulas. Massage, for example, is one of those things that appeals to people of all ages, although the same can be said for most of the programs we offer – after all, who doesn’t want to feel better at work?

Where employee age does have an impact, however, is from the benefits that stem from implementing a corporate

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wellness initiative. There is no doubt that workplace health and wellbeing programs help promote employee engagement, regardless of a person’s age. Likewise, such programs also increase employee morale and motivation, improve productivity and enhance performance.

However, as people get older, the risk of a number of lifestyle-related chronic diseases goes up. With an increase in chronic disease comes heightened potential for lost productivity, increased absenteeism, elevated staff turnover and associated recruitment and training costs, reduced team morale as individuals ‘cover’ for ill colleagues, and the list goes on. Among older employees, workplace health programs therefore start to play a particularly important role in maximising their business success.

The good news is that organisations can definitely play a critical role in the prevention, early detection and management of chronic disease. The reality is that all major chronic diseases that we see in Australia today are amenable to interventions which target stress reduction, nutrition and weight management, blood pressure and cholesterol control, and various other lifestyle modifications and behavioural interventions. The bottom line is that if we can keep people healthy, then organisations benefit and are in a much better position to flourish over the longer term.

Five hallmarks of an effective employee wellness initiative are: 1. Engaging – workplace health and wellbeing programs should be fun

and enjoyable for all concerned. If designed well, they can help promote communication between employees and foster effective teamwork and camaraderie.

2. Practical – nobody wants to go to a session to be ‘talked at’. Effective wellbeing programs always incorporate practical activities that give people a memorable experience.

3. Educational – there needs to be some degree of skills transfer so that employees gain knowledge and/or skills that they can take away and apply long after the original experience is over.

4. Preventative – the true business benefits of a workplace health initiative become apparent when a preventative focus is taken – whether in ways to prevent stress, physical ill health, muscle fatigue/physical injury, or even a negative outlook at work.

5. Flexible – there needs to be room to tailor things to meet the specific needs of your organisation. It is important to consider your key objectives, your employee profile, worksite practicalities, particular issues or challenges that are currently being faced, time and cost constraints, and so on. ‘Off the shelf ’ solutions ignore the fact that every organisation is different.

About the author Michael Stone is director of Holistic Health Services. For more information e-mail info@holisticservices.com.au or visit www.holisticservices.com.au

opinion – employee benefits

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As workers age, benefits should change As the proportion of older workers in the labour force increases, employers need to reassess their employee benefits to ensure they cater for the over-55s, writes David Abusah

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enefits packages have long been used as attraction and retention tools and as a way for employers to differentiate themselves in the employment market. But have we lost our way? And are employers missing a huge opportunity when it comes to benefit design? According to Mercer’s research, it appears so.

Mercer’s Benefits Outside the Square study of 600 working Australians and 150 employers, conducted in 2008, highlighted a continuing disconnect between the benefits that employees want and value, and the benefits that employers think their employees want.

The survey found that a rising number of Australian workers are not satisfied with the benefits on offer from their employers, and the demographic most unhappy is the

Baby Boomers – nearly 50% of employees aged 50 and over were dissatisfied with the benefits on offer to them.

This is alarming news considering that Australian employers are growing increasingly reliant on older workers.

Mercer’s Workplace 2012 research forecasts that the number of individuals in Australia’s labour force aged 55+ will increase by 15.4%; while the number of workers aged 25-54 will only increase by 6.3% by 2012.

Benefits design needs to evolve with the changing workforce and their preferences. A ‘one size fits all’ approach is no longer effective and is at odds with what the benefits program aims to achieve.

Subsidised gym memberships or paid parental leave may push the buttons of the Gen X’ers and Y’ers in the company,

Benefits Outside the Square Study, Mercer What employees want

What employers think employees want

1.

Discounted private health insurance

1.

Paid parental leave for primary caregiver

2.

Home computer/internet packages

2.

Ability to work from home

3.

Home loans at lower interest rates

3.

Paid parental leave for secondary care giver

4.

Self education expenses

4.

Discounts on company products

5.

Discounts on movies/hotels/airfares

5.

Employee share plan

6.

Discounted income protection insurance

6.

Home loans at lower interest rates

7.

Discounted home/contents insurance

7.

Ability to make super contributions greater than 9%

8.

Ability to work from home

8.

Self education expenses

9.

Subsidised gym membership/ personal trainer

9.

Company car/lease

10.

Other loans (ie, personal or car) at Additional base salary in lieu of 10. lower interest rates annual leave

but it’s unlikely that these will deliver the equivalent value for older workers.

Effective benefits design requires an understanding of what it is that employees value most, aligning the benefit offering with these preferences, while also driving desired organisational outcomes. This balance is critical to achieving optimal returns on your benefit spend.

Employee benefits preferences can be determined through a variety of diagnostic techniques ranging from surveys, focus groups, internal data analysis, or even external market research.

Preferences may vary markedly across employee populations.

For Baby Boomers, funding retirement is top of mind, and is an opportunity for employers to engage with this segment of the workforce. Mercer’s study found that 40% of employees aged 50 and over are unsure how much they will need in retirement, and furthermore an increasing number of people expect to delay retirement until their 70s.

To understand which benefits should be made available, employers need to speak to their workforce about the benefits they want and then deliver them. In the case of the Baby Boomers, which make up an increasingly key part of the workforce, non-traditional benefits such as financial advice and flexible working arrangements may go some way to retaining them longer in the workforce.

About the author David Abusah is head of broad-based performance and rewards at Mercer.

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recruitment

The

wrong way to hire

Fair employment practices are the hallmarks of a great HR department, but being perfectly unbiased is easier said than done. Human Capital talks to the experts about maintaining equality at the hiring stage

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onsider the following scenarios.

A caucasian job seeker who speaks Mandarin fluently is turned away from a translating job; two qualified women, one young and one older, who apply for a position in advertising, but only the younger candidate is shortlisted; an overweight man applies for a position in the financial services sector, and is turned away despite his high skills and excellent references.

The employers give fair reasons for their choices. Nobody takes a Mandarin translator seriously if they are not ethnic Chinese; a Gen-Y executive is a better fit for the trendy advertising industry; and an obese employee can bring a host of medical problems which might raise insurance costs and cut into company time.

But are these biases justified? Experts say no. Further, they believe such prejudices can mar HR’s vision of the skills and experience needed to fulfill roles in the company. Employing with prejudice can also be costly, as poor performances or short tenures can easily result.

In many cases, the biases can be subconscious. Any emphasis on what should be insignificant factors – such as race, gender, age or marital status – distracts the employer from an effective evaluation of the candidate. Hirers need to make a conscious movement towards total awareness of their influences.

Mark Powell, Australian MD of Singapore-based Executive Directions, certainly agrees. In his 10 years as a recruiter, he has rarely seen employers tackling hiring decisions from a purely strategic perspective. “The metrics employers use are all short-term,” he says. “I’ve never had an employer ask how

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successful the candidate’s performance [has] been.”

Powell is one of many recruitment professionals who have observed employers using unfair or inappropriate hiring criteria. Among the experts Human Capital spoke with was a former headhunter for the financial sector who knew of companies that used physical appearance as a major factor in hiring.

One leading investment bank requested a tall candidate for a leadership position.

Another asked for a “pretty” secretary.

Identify your biases

Powell says if somebody chooses to be biased, no amount of advice or restructuring will help them along.

However, there is hope for employers who aren’t aware of their hiring biases, because there are methods of identifying and changing these.

Many hiring managers are not even aware of their own biases and stereotypes, as they may have been learned from youth and reinforced over time. Common employer biases remain age and gender.

Some employers – particularly in the AsiaPacific region – also specify a language requirement without explanation.

Common biases might be easier to identify, but there is sometimes confusion on what constitutes a real prejudice. Some employers consider their actions completely reasonable or within their rights. One example is reverse discrimination, where hirers deliberately favour minorities in an effort to ‘balance the scales’. But recruiters warn it is still a less-than-ideal business strategy.

There is also a tendency to categorise certain hiring criteria as part of a grey area

between skills and prestige. A widespread hiring bias is the judgment of performance based on the brand names associated with a candidate. Employers are usually keener to hire candidates with degrees from reputable universities or experience at top companies.

“You may not be the best skilled person for the job, but if you have a Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley name behind you, you get hired,” says one recruiter. At the same time, equally experienced candidates from less prestigious companies fall out of favour.

While time at the big names may indicate competence and talent, this shouldn’t be the sole reason the candidate’s application is moved to the top of the pile.

Powell says the recruiter must also look at skills, past experiences and behaviours, placing the candidate in the context of the role under consideration.

The tough economic times are also tempting employers to discriminate on the basis of marital status or pregnancy. Some companies might be inclined to put the fair employment agenda on the backburner as cash flow and business issues take

“Biases occur because of a lack of recruitment robustness. They happen when an employer relies on a gut feeling – a perception based on values and experiences” –Mark Powell

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precedence. However, that can sometimes have a negative long-term impact. Being perceived as a ‘fair employer’ also helps to attract, retain and motivate employees.

The grey areas

Hiring with prejudice is an ineffective practice over the long term. But in some cases, can a requirement that appears biased actually be a positive, practical choice? What if an employer is looking for a specific gender or ethnicity to serve a

niche demographic? What if they’re looking at age as an indicator of life experience? Identifying and responding to biases is not always a question of black and white.

“Businesses have unique needs and there is no one cookie-cutter solution,” admits one recruiter.

Powell agrees – but he warns employers to be careful of the assumptions they make about candidates. “It can be said that younger workers are blind purely in a

What not to do: the Virgin Blue case Virgin Blue Airlines came under fire in a decision handed down by the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal on 10 October 2005. The case sent a shockwave through the recruitment industry in terms of its treatment of older workers. This case provided a ‘face’ to statistical research which demonstrates that older workers find it especially difficult to re-enter employment and that recruiters can act as gatekeepers rather than advocates for older workers. The decision was a wake-up call for employers and recruiters to ensure they accessed and recruited a diverse age range of candidates.

Eight complainants (aged 36–56) brought a case against Virgin Blue of direct and indirect age discrimination under the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act 1991. The case is interesting because it was found that the bias in the recruitment process towards younger employees was not due to anything intentional on the part of the recruiters; rather it occurred when the candidates went through supposedly objective selection criteria. The process was designed to assess ‘behavioural competencies’ including assertiveness, team work, communication, and ‘Virgin Flair’ (the ability to have fun). It was assessing this last point where the younger recruiters – who saw

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business development perspective,” he says.

“For sales roles, it’s possible that younger workers are better.” But he stresses the employer should still question past experience in areas like making cold calls. “If you come across someone smart, hire them regardless of age,” he says.

Certain roles are also market-sensitive.

For example, when hiring staff to work in the Singapore office of an overseasbased corporation, it makes sense to look for candidates with language skills or previous experience in the country’s business culture.

Structured hiring

themselves as fun-loving people – came undone. They hired candidates who were similar to themselves.

Thus, only one person aged 36+ was employed from over 750 candidates.

“It was inherent prejudice within these recruiters. They thought when you’re older you’re no longer fun-loving,” says Juliet Bourke, partner at Aequus Partners. “The recruiters weren’t even aware of their own stereotypes – so they didn’t notice the lens through which they were assessing the person in front of them. That’s the issue in the community right now. We have many prejudices tied up with looking at the person in front of us who has a few grey hairs – maybe they don’t want a career anymore, maybe they’ll be moving on soon – and that affects employment practices.”

Besides identifying their own prejudices, employers are strongly encouraged to implement a hiring structure which filters out all irrelevant criteria. “Biases occur because of a lack of recruitment robustness.

They happen when an employer relies on a gut feeling – and has perceptions based on values and experiences,” says Powell.

He stresses the importance of asking candidates about past work behaviours.

“How people act tomorrow is similar to how they acted yesterday,” he explains.

The language of these interview questions needs to provoke an answer that proves the candidate can apply past experiences to current work functions.

For example, to gauge a candidate’s aptitude in handling workplace conflicts, ask ‘how did you handle conflicts at your previous company?’ This is different from the question most employers ask: ‘how would you handle a conflict?’

Powell says the hypothetical nature allows the candidate to give the answer the employer simply wants to hear, thus negating any informative value.

Adjusting the language of interview questions is just one aspect of the impartial hiring process that Powell advocates. To combat biases, employers must also insist on having airtight recruitment procedures.

A thorough hiring structure which lists work and behavior competencies does not leave much room for biases to weigh in on a final decision. HC

diversity awards

issue 7.8

Celebrating diversity and inclusion within the workplace

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iversity@Work is often asked to define where diversity and inclusion actually sit in the psyche of Australian businesses.

Are diversity and inclusion integral to the success of your business? Or are they a nice to have CSR initiative?

Mark Heaysman, Diversity@Work, CEO, outlines two key points to consider when answering these questions: 1. What can and should an organisation do to reduce costs and risk exposures as a business?

2. How can you build a business capacity to outperform competitors and make your business relevant?

“Businesses continue to grapple with how to manage cost reduction in finance, purchasing, wages, marketing and production,” says Mark. “These are tangible costs: people get paid good money to ensure these are managed to budget – in fact many companies have teams of people managing the costs across these key operational areas.

“Where this becomes tricky is the struggle to align ongoing endeavors for cost reductions, to the capacity to differentiate, to gain a market edge over a competitor, to remain contemporary in a changing market, to be innovative – in effect, juggling known costs and risks with the unknowns of the future and the potential.”

At its worst, this juggling will result in the continuance of a norm where we see ‘incidents’ (ie, EEO, anti discrimination and OH&S claims and high levels of

absenteeism) occur in the workplace, resulting in significant financial cost along with, huge damage to the organisational brand. Organisations that recognise the tangible costs, savings and competitor advantage available through engaging their people, not their workforce, will benefit from the value of inclusion.

So what is the right way? If it’s not all about juggling CSR, costs and risk management then what else is there?

It is about the future. It’s about having an inclusive workforce where your people are engaged – where engagement creates an environment where people apply a greater effort of input – where they have a greater care about the organisations health – they bring new ideas and they challenge the old ones.

“Different thinking comes from difference – diversity; and to sustain diversity and to unleash its potential we need an inclusive environment creating authentic engagement,” says Mark.

Diversity, innovation and HR for that matter must become a key management focus for organisations. To have the diversity specialist or innovation team sitting outside of the corporate governance process and not having a direct line of reporting diminishes the organisations ability to act, thereby reflecting the organisations lack of understanding of the importance of its people and the future.

Organisations that embrace diversity and inclusion within the workplace are celebrated annually with the Diversity@ Work Awards. Established in 2001,

the Awards recognise and reward true leadership, organisations that have turned difference into sustainable inclusive workplace initiatives. The 2009 Diversity@ Work Awards will host 800 attendees from the business, government and community sectors on Thursday 15 October 2009, at Peninsula, Docklands. For further information on the Awards (including past winners) and how to attend please visit www.diversityatwork.com.au/awards

The 2009 Diversity@ Work Awards are proudly supported by:

Sponsors: Australia Post, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, Mercy Health, TAC, ANZ, Department of Transport, AMES, SageCo, Randstad and Victoria Police.

Supporters: National Disability Service, Saxton Speakers Bureau, Victorian Council of Social Service, Atlantic Group, ACE National and HC Magazine.

Win! Diversity@Work is pleased to offer two complimentary tickets to the 2009 Diversity@Work Awards to Human Capital readers.

To enter, e-mail the organisation name, category and year of award of a previous Diversity@Work Award winner. First correct entry to jnorth@rdimarketing.com.au wins. www.hcamag.com

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interim managers

Interim managers more than a band-aid fix

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interim managers

As the workforce becomes less entrenched in long-term positions, and corporations struggle to remain competitive, the field of interim management is exploding. Human Capital explores the options

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rganisations used to look at interim managers as temporary employees filling a gap due to an organisational or succession failure. But this image of interim managers is changing, and it is no longer an accurate description of what is a billion dollar business sector.

Although a third of these managers will provide gap management services, the majority of interim managers provide program and project management for special corporate projects. Over the last decade, interim managers have gained the respect of many business sectors and have shown corporations the advantages of hiring interim managers as strategic tools instead of just corporate tourniquets.

Business relies on interim managers

While interim management has been gaining traction in Australian businesses over the past 10-15 years, Greg Rich, director of local specialists Hamilton Rich, acknowledges that the practice of hiring interim managers has yet to fully take off here.

He notes that the UK and Europe lead the way.

“I see this gaining popularity here in Australia,” he says.

“Businesses are perhaps seeing a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the economic downturn. They are becoming more positive about the economy, but until things really pick up, the interim path is a way that organisations can bring in skilled resources without overcommitting to help them achieve their objectives.”

According to the UK’s Interim Management Association (IMA), the use of interim managers continues to increase, with a third of interim managers working in banking. Although banking finds interim management advantageous, so does retail and manufacturing.

Other sectors showing an interest in this field include tourism, leisure and hotels, engineering and electronics, and media. These sectors are just realising the advantages of interim management

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and have started utilising this resource to increase their competitive edge. Paul Botting of IMA believes “much of the focus is now on change management. It means interim executives are going into major private and public sector organisations, often in leadership roles, to introduce and lead business critical changes and improvements.”

Time for a change

Although, intellectually, companies know they need to bring in changes to stay ahead of the curve, many companies struggle with the reality of implementing change. Mary Ann North, CEO of US-based Posada Consulting warns, “don’t wait until there’s trouble. Progressive organisations look forward and small steps don’t always get you where you need to be. Real change is hard, and an interim manager is able to come into an organisation and pull off the band-aid. “ Bringing in such a person is a serious alternative to retaining a consultancy company. A consultancy company may suggest changes, but an interim manager will make the suggestions, implement them and ensure that the systems are working properly.

“An interim manager – as opposed to a consultant – is generally more willing to transfer knowledge,” says Rich. “A consultant is likely to come in and say ‘this is what you need and this is what we’ll deliver’, and then back themselves into the organisation and make you reliant on them. They have a lot of intellectual property but they may not be willing to share it.

An interim manager has nothing to lose – they want to share their knowledge.”

According to the IMA, the average length of an assignment is 137 days In some cases, companies may know what they would like to achieve but do not possess the relevant knowledge or skills to achieve their goals, and an interim manager is able to step in and assist the company achieve positive results. Some areas where interim managers have excelled include managing outsourcing and extending shared services. They excel at facilitating and leading the restructuring of an organisation, and implementing new technologies, risk and regulatory systems.

Although interim managers excel at implementing change, they also work well in the areas of gap management. Corporations may look to an interim manager as a way to keep an organisation running smoothly when there is an unexpected or temporary vacancy in management. Companies may look to such people www.hcamag.com

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interim managers

when they need someone due to promotions, restructuring, maternity leave, health related absences or resignations, but North does not believe that this type of employee should be considered an interim manager. “The field of interim management is fairly new and evolving. The managers who go in and work on a temporary basis to fill a gap in management aren’t there to implement changes; they’re only there to maintain the status quo and shouldn’t be considered interim.”

A workable situation

Interim managers are not long-term employees. According to the IMA, the average length of an assignment is 137 days. North agrees that most projects should not be longer than six months. “I try to keep the project within a six-month time frame. I sit down with the company and create a cut-off date for the consulting phase in which we analyse the situation, present our information to the board, and spend time receiving comments and vetting it.”

It is extremely important to set a date to end the consulting phase so that implementation and monitoring can be completed within the optimal six-month period.

Once the interim manager is hired, it is important that a steering committee or advisory board is in place to work with the interim manager. “I always have an inner circle,” comments North.

“Once I have a committee in place, I’ll make sure that everyone is in agreement. If I hear someone say that a change won’t happen in the company, I bring this to the attention of the committee and if everyone agrees because the issue is a ‘sacred cow’ then I won’t waste my time.”

Wasting time is not high on the list of interim managers.

With short windows for results, having the cooperation of management is essential to success and results.

Bringing in an interim manager requires companies to provide plenty of communication and contact to ensure that the project results are positive. Also, according to North, tracking metrics along the way is essential to realise positive results.

Five HR tips An interim manager should be someone: 1. who has a good track record 2. able to look with a fresh pair of eyes 3. who understands your corporate culture 4. who has an extensive knowledge base to transfer your organisation 5. with good communication skills

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Getting results is high on the list for North. “As an interim manager, it’s important to make sure that you have ‘easy wins’ and some ‘hard to dos’ on your list of changes. The ‘easy wins’ make it easier to implement the changes.”

Being an interim manager is difficult. Some of the challenges faced by them include complications with unions, issues with the corporate culture, a lack of ‘out’ clauses and a lack of capital.

“When an organisation doesn’t have capital to implement changes, fund raising or taking on debt are options that have to be seriously considered by the board and are a serious challenge to an interim manager,” stresses North.

According to Rich, it does take a special person to fill an interim role. “Firstly, you must have someone who is highly skilled. We often say the person we put in as an interim manager must be overskilled for the role so they don’t have to be told how to do the role. Second, they must have the personality and communication skills that enable them to work in with the management team. We cannot put someone in who will upset the applecart.”

Reaping the benefits

Speed is one of the benefits companies realise when using an interim manager. For instance, they are able to start within days, with minimal recruitment. Not only are they able to start within a short period of time, there are many highly qualified managers focusing on specific niches. North, an interim CEO in the US, focuses on revamping medical schools. Her experience as a CEO and in the medical field means that she is able to bring substantial knowledge and experience to each project.

“Not surprisingly our services are often called for when someone resigns and there is an urgent need to replace them. For example, we had a major listed company that lost their in-house legal and company secretary three months before an AGM. They needed someone quickly but it may have taken them six months to find someone suitable. We got a phone call, we checked our database and found someone with exactly the right skills, and that person started within a week of the brief,” Rich explains.

One of the major benefits of hiring an interim manager is the objectivity they bring to the organisation. They are not constrained by company politics, personalities or protocols. They are able to focus their energies on critical tasks and they know their performance is measured on the results achieved.

“An interim can bring a fresh perspective. They may come from a different industry but they bring that knowledge to the company they are hired for. We had a role for a CFO in a large government utility – the person we put in came from a FMCG background. They thought he was terrific,” says Rich.

interim managers

“Real change is hard and an interim manager is able to come into an organisation and pull off the band-aid” –Mary Ann North An additional benefit to the company is the transfer of knowledge. When an interim manager is hired for a project, they not only bring results, but give employees useful contacts, new skill sets and experiences that will remain within the corporate knowledge base.

The price you pay

According to the IMA, the average daily rate in the private sector is US$1,432 with HR interim managers averaging US$1,328 per day. The cost of an interim manager is equivalent to 1% per day of the equivalent annual package for the position. So an executive interim manager operating as one of the corporate directors with a compensation of US$157,000 per annum, should be paid approximately US$1,570 per day for the executive interim manager role.

Unlike executive recruiters, Hamilton Rich does not charge a recruitment fee. “We charge a daily rate, which means there is an opportunity to transfer fixed costs to variable. You have a daily rate, and you know exactly what you’re up for,” says Rich.

The costs are further mitigated if, as often occurs, interim managers move to full-time roles with the client organisation.

“The interim experience provides an excellent ‘look-see’ for both sides. The manager gets to experience the culture firsthand, the client sees how good the interim manager is for six months, they don’t pay a recruitment fee, and then they can appoint them full time,” says Rich.

issue 7.8

new set of friends and explore new cities and areas of the country.”

Most of the interim managers currently working in the field are semi-retired and want more control over their lives. Although the work allows managers to have more control, it does make it difficult to raise a young family. According to North, most interim managers are single or more mature aged. Although the workforce is getting more creative and interim management is steadily increasing, the positions are not very conducive to a traditional family life.

If you are interested in working as an interim manager, North stresses the importance of finding a mentor. This field is fairly new, but growing rapidly, and there are interim executives, like North, willing to help other executives make the career change.

Although interim managers traditionally were hired to fill a management gap, the position has evolved into a strategic position and managers are looking towards interim management as a longterm career instead of a short-term career option. HC

Working as an interim manager

“I’d never have been happy working in a consulting company. I love being able to make suggestions, implement the changes and make sure they’re working,” comments North, who loves working as an interim CEO, but she admits the job is not for everyone.

“There’s a little bit of a problem with work-life balance, but I love the work. Working as an interim manager requires a healthy sense of adventure, and enjoyment in experiencing something new.

“You’re frequently moving to new locations, which is very disruptive to home life, but you get the opportunity to make a www.hcamag.com

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executive education

The sky is

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the limit With many industries now demanding advanced qualifications to get ahead, the popularity of the Master of Business (MBA) remains high. Human Capital talks to course conveners about selecting the right course for your needs www.hcamag.com

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ach year it seems that business schools launch ‘new look’ courses targeting executives who are looking to keep their skills sharp.

The range – not to mention the price – of courses can be daunting. Stretching from $15K to $90K, students should consider how much bang they are getting for their buck before choosing a course.

For the MBA – traditionally viewed as the jewel in the crown of any post-grad qualification – four broad elements need to be considered: reputation, quality, community and cost.

John Edwards, acting director, executive education, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, throws another consideration into the mix: personal motivation. “What are you going to do with your MBA? Where do you want to go with it once you’ve got it? The two main reasons for a student undertaking an MBA are career advancement within their own organisation, and stepping into other fields or industries that perhaps they haven’t been able to get into before,” he says.

Reputation

The reputation of the institution will undoubtedly have a significant bearing on where study is taken. Edwards notes that if a student is after just any MBA with three initials behind their name, all universities offer that. “You could get a low cost distance learning MBA if that’s what you’re after. If you really want to get a good interactive, face-to-face learning experience with quality teachers, there are business schools for that as well,” he says.

There are a number of highly respected journals publishing university rankings annually. Locally, these include the Australian Financial Review BOSS listings, and the Good Universities Guide to MBAs and Executive Short Courses.

The international surveys that all the leading Australian business schools vie to get into are from the London Financial Times and The Economist.

Each survey usually follows a different set of criteria, which means actually ranking universities in general terms can be tricky. “For the Financial Times rankings it depends on the alumni –

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where they are three years after they’ve completed their degree and what type of job and the salaries they are on. Some of the other surveys have customer or student satisfaction input,” says Edwards.

Edwards believes employers do look closely at the reputation of the institution – so reputation must also be carefully considered by the student. Whether studying for a promotion, a career change, or even personal development, the school’s academic standing plays an important role in a student’s chances of post-study success.

Similarly, some programs aim to train general managers, while others aim to train functional specialists. It’s important to ensure that both the content and focus on the MBA program matches personal career goals. The MBA on offer from MGSM, for example, is generalist.

There are several technical and functional subjects like finance, accounting, marketing and HR; but when it comes to the MBA component of the Masters course it’s all about leadership and strategy.

“People might come into an MBA with an accounting background and they may want to focus on that field initially.

But it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll end up being an accountant – they’ll probably want to be managing people and staff, budgets and projects,” says Edwards.

Quality

The quality of the school depends on how rigourous its entry and progression standards are, as well as the quality of the students and the teaching staff. Most of the high-end business schools are quite restrictive in their student intakes.

MGSM, for example, only allows students with an undergraduate degree and/or five years of management experience – be it managing people, projects or budgets.

At Monash University the average age of an MBA student is 31–32 years.

Both MGSM and Monash have excellent international reputations and it’s significant that both screen students for experience – the reasoning being that time in the field is important to the overall class structure. “We have quite a restrictive criteria and a mature aged student body.

Other universities offer Masters courses for those aged 22–23, but we believe students need that previous learning experience and work context,” says Edwards.

Peter Reed, associate professor and MBA director at Monash University, admits that the reputation of the MBA has been slightly tarnished by less reputable institutions offering these courses, but he believes it remains the first choice for those looking to take their career to the next level. “It’s no secret MBAs have been under attack for the last five years, but they have come back strongly because people realise it’s there to prepare people for leadership positions,” he says. “There’s been a trend for some MBA providers in Australia to reduce the work experience required for entry down to zero or very limited – they tend to be missing the point about what MBAs are all about.”

Community

If the term ‘community’ is considered broadly, it should include the calibre of the students themselves, the alumni programs on offer, and the faculty’s ties with the business world. The contacts made at MBA level can be invaluable. Often business graduates are future industry leaders, and the bonds forged at school can result in great synergies between companies when those graduates do go out into the workforce. Graduates should join alumni networks, which universities encourage since word of mouth is powerful.

In some instances it’s not just the institution demanding high quality student intake – it’s also the students themselves.

“Most of our students work full or part time,” says Edwards. “Do they want to deal with someone who’s 10 years younger than them with limited experience? The answer is usually no. With group classes and assignments, a lot of the quality of learning comes from those you’re studying with – who you will network with, who you will do projects with. It’s learning off each other, and also having a lecturer who can stimulate that sort of discussion.”

Indeed, the teaching faculty must also be considered, with a mix of thought leadership and research expertise being ideal. Edwards admits that updating the

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What does the recruiter say?

Human Capital talks to Peter Bettson-Barker of Alpha3 Executive Search about the benefits of post-graduate education HC: In your experience does an MBA or similar post-grad qualification assist candidates to land the ‘perfect job’?

PBB: In times of high unemployment, there is a need for candidates to ‘stand out from the pack’. One way of achieving this is to possess an MBA or similar postgraduate qualification.

Whether the qualification assists candidates to land the ‘perfect job’ is debatable. But it should give them a better chance of landing a job than candidates without postgraduate qualifications.

For me, the determining questions when recruiting are: Which candidate best meets the role’s criteria or specification? And, which is the best cultural fit?

I believe the answers to these questions are more important than post-graduate qualifications. Admittedly, tertiary qualifications highlight a person’s self-disciplinary skills but they don’t necessarily mean a person is more intelligent.

HC: Do employers care where the post-grad qualifications come from?

PBB: I remember years ago working on assignments for clients who refused to see any candidate unless they had an MBA, let alone a tertiary qualification. Many of our clients insisted on tertiary qualifications, but not necessarily postgraduate qualifications. The primary reason given by clients was that it gave the organisation a ‘comfort level’ that it had staff who could be promoted through the organisation.

At the time, we argued that it was unlikely that any organisation could provide enough promotion opportunities to satisfy and retain all graduate employees in the long term.

To me it is preferable for organisations to maintain ‘balanced’ teams within their organisation – a balance between youth and experience; between genders; between tertiary and secondary educated employees.

History has confirmed that organisations with wellbalanced teams will enjoy longer serving employees.

Initially when MBAs were introduced, organisations were not fussed about the institution at which the MBA was undertaken. But in recent years we’ve noticed that organisations are more likely to rate MBAs according to the institution they attended. This is likely more a reflection of the number of institutions offering MBAs these days.

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HC: Many executives believe they don’t need to keep their skills cutting edge. What are your thoughts on continuing education?

PBB: In any business, nothing compares to experience.

Nevertheless, competition to land the ‘top job’ is becoming fiercer. I think what continuing education provides, apart from refining one’s skills, is a broader perspective to business. An MD has to have a very strong understanding, and ideally working knowledge, of all departments within an organisation. You can’t assume that the marketing director or sales director is the best person for the MD’s role.

Continuing education can provide that broader perspective. Even institutions such as the Australian Institute of Company Directors provides a Company Directors Course to better educate anyone considering a Board appointment or appointment to a Management Advisory Board.

In essence, the higher one wants to progress in an organisation, depending on their business experience to date, the greater the role that can be played by further education if they are to achieve their career aspirations.

The executive has to make their own determination as to whether the costs, both financial and time, are justified as a means of helping them achieve their desired result.

Having said that, I recognise that for most people it is extremely difficult to return to study after so many years away from it. Looking at MBAs as an example, you have a ‘Catch-22’ situation – while one is young and eager to learn, cost is a key factor; yet when one is older and financially more stable, time is more likely to be the limiting factor.

HC: Would an HR director with an MBA be considered for non-HR roles?

PBB: It depends. Just because a person has an MBA doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to be an excellent marketing director, for example. We are all born with certain skills. For everyone, it is recognising those skills, harnessing them and using them to achieve their career goal. I don’t believe an MBA is going to change one’s inherent skill base.

I do believe, however, that it will broaden one’s perspective, and allow one to capitalise on other people’s skill base.

An HR director may show signs of having the necessary skills for marketing. But these skills would have to be assessed in a junior marketing capacity before an organisation would consider appointing them marketing director. Having reached such seniority in HR, it may be difficult for an HR director to consider a career change where a more junior role may be necessary in the initial change over.

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executive education

skills of the teaching faculty is an ongoing mission, especially when dealing with the current challenging business conditions.

“We do a lot of work on teaching and learning to make sure courses are updated. Our students also have customer satisfaction surveys so the teachers who don’t make the cut don’t last long. The expectations of the student body are high because they’re paying a lot,” he says.

Cost

Half of MGSM’s MBA students will be fully or partly sponsored by their organisation to ‘go back to school’. But with training budgets likely to be slashed, L&D and HR directors will need to weigh up time taken out of the organisation against benefits to the organisation. In short, how will an MBA improve the bottom line of the business and how much will taking an employee out of business for study times out of the office affect cash flow? Students undertaking an MBA at their own expense should weigh up

issue 7.8

Who’s the best?

While there is no general consensus on the ‘best’ MBA, the Financial Times top 100 rankings of global full-time MBA courses is highly regarded. »» In the 2009 rankings, two Australian universities made the list: AGSM (up seven places to 32nd); and Melbourne Business School (up 23 places to 52nd). »» The Financial Times survey is heavily weighted to salary outcomes for alumni in their first three years after graduation. The salary they achieve at that point, and the increase it represents over their pre-MBA salary, account for a combined 40% of the total ranking. »» The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school was again rated number one, but was joined in the top spot this year by the London Business School where a more international student and faculty base made up for the superior salaries boasted by Wharton alumni. »» Wharton graduates boasted a 119% increase in salary to an average $US169,784, compared with a 121% increase at London to a more modest $US146,565. »» These increases must be tempered by graduates paying a high cost to study at both institutions: the Financial Times ranked Wharton bottom in terms of value for money, while London came in at 56th. »» AGSM graduates were earning an average $US127,474 three years after graduation, a 100% increase on pre-study earnings, while Melbourne graduates were earning an average $US110,290, an 83% rise. »» A full-time MBA at AGSM or Melbourne costs around $54,000.

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remuneration prospects after graduation against the cost of an MBA, also taking into consideration work and family commitments. Edwards adds that students also have the option of taking out a loan through Fee Help, which is the Federal Government’s loan scheme for postgraduate education, similar to the HECs scheme for undergraduates.

Flexible options

To get the balance between work and personal life, and of course to uphold the intake of students already working, most post-grad courses offer a mix of flexible study options: on campus, online, and distance study modules are commonplace.

The majority of Australian students opt for part-time study, especially if they are

already in the workforce. A part-time MGSM student will take two years to complete an MBA, while full-time study can be completed in 12 months. Like most business schools, at MGSM students can move in and out of part-time study – for example, study part time for one term, followed by the next term with more subjects. Courses are run over 10 weeks – ie, four terms of 10 week study, followed by an exam after each term.

La Trobe University’s Graduate School of Management (GSM), has also adopted a four term system, which allows local students to take time off if they are busy or have to travel for work. Study can be resumed after 10 weeks (each term consists of 10 weeks of lectures, one week of assessment and one vacation week).

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Further information RMIT English Worldwide Ph: 03 9657 5810 E-mail: business.english@rmit.edu.au

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The structure of courses varies widely.

The MBA at GSM is a generalist MBA designed after the Harvard model. It consists of seven core units representing all areas of management, including: financial management accounting; strategic human resource management, international business environment; issues in strategic management; management fundamentals; marketing and organisational behaviour.

Students then have the opportunity to make a selection from a wide range of elective units, which gives them the option to generalise their MBA or to focus on a particular area of business administration.

A student wishing to focus on HR, for example, might opt to take units such as developing people and high performance organisations; governance and corporate social responsibility; international and comparative HRM; and international employment relations.

Monash University provides another option by offering 12 double degrees, which is an MBA combined with another Masters degree. One of those is a Masters degree in HRM. “It’s a popular option because HR positions are increasingly being seen as senior management, so the MBA combined with a Masters in HRM provides more opportunities,” says Reed.

Final assessment

So is it worth going back to school to complete an MBA, or undertake graduate management classes? While learning environments cannot replicate the ups and downs and unique pressures of the business world, they can position students looking to move up the corporate ladder as a manager in a large corporation.

“The reason for doing an MBA has not changed – its intention is to provide an educational background to prepare the individual for a leadership role of or within an organisation. In tough economic times middle level management positions are often slashed and it’s therefore important for people in these roles to position themselves for more senior management roles. Organisations also need to employ leaders who have the intellectual depth to help steer them successfully during times of uncertainty,” says Reed. HC

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executive education

The next generation of

MBA The University of Sydney is hoping its new global executive MBA will provide the ultimate post-GFC qualification.

Iain Hopkins gets the inside word

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t’s rare that a business school is able to launch an MBA from scratch – usually there are constant updates and tweaks to content and focus, but the tried and tested remains the same. Presented with an opportunity to create a new-look course from a blank sheet of paper, The University of Sydney went back to basics before launching its global executive MBA earlier this year.

It’s taken three years of research and testing to produce the course, the germ of which started with feedback from business executives, students and academics about what a ‘new era’ MBA

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should look like. “Some of the feedback we received indicated that although there are many MBAs, they tend to look the same,” says Prof. Chris Styles, associate dean, executive education, faculty of economics and business, University of Sydney. “In addition, people said that traditional fulltime two-year MBAs have been heavy on the analytical side and also the functional or disciplinary side – so you learn about marketing or finance or HR. However, we quickly established that when it comes to leadership development, the problems that leaders face are more holistic. They are business problems, not just marketing or finance problems.”

This holistic view of leadership presented the course organisers with a special problem. If discipline or function were no longer the organising principles of the course, what would be? The team developed an ‘opportunity lifecycle’ approach, which combines a ‘learn from doing’ approach with live projects built with and for the business world.

What’s involved?

The course structure is simple. In the early stages, participants complete preliminary online modules and commence work on

their in-company project. The majority of the program then takes place in five 14-day residential blocks of face-to-face classes held approximately every four months over a period of 18 months. Participants undertake self-directed preparation before each module. The first two modules – the Foundations of Management, and Leadership – are conducted in Sydney.

The other three modules are completed in various locations around the world.

These last three modules present global business challenges from the real world.

The first of these modules – Creating and Developing New Opportunities – is based in Bangalore. The second – Managing Growth – is conducted in Silicon Valley.

The final module – Turning Around Mature Businesses – is conducted in Europe.

There are other global executive MBAs that take students to other parts of the world, but Styles notes the key difference with the University of Sydney’s offering is the degree to which context is brought into learning. “For some of those other courses you might go to Shanghai and stay at the Hilton. Then you have a seminar room where you might do your finance class, then you get on a bus and see some

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factories and hear talks on doing business in China. A step further is actually doing business in the location rather than learning about doing business,” Prof.

Styles says. “In the three international modules we get students working on reallife consulting projects in that location.

Thus, the university has found organisations in Bangalore where the theme of business opportunity can be explored, and a group of three or four students conducts prep work before heading over to the location for two intensive weeks. Half that time on location involves work on the consulting project, and the other half is seminars and learning. Students then go back and present a seminar for the host organisation.

In Europe the university has worked with a number of companies in the wine industry, specifically in the Languedoc area of France, which is the biggest wine growing region in the world. Many businesses in the area are also in desperate need of renewal. “A lot of this is about change management. These people have been doing what they do for hundreds of years and it’s highly regulated. It’s not about coming up with a clever strategy and presenting it in Powerpoint charts, but rather understanding the context and environment and taking people through a change management process. We’re bringing that context into the learning experience rather than separating it. There has been criticism of some MBAs that have separated the technical learning part from the context in which they are applied,” Prof. Styles explains.

Redefining leadership development

The leadership module is also unique.

Rather than teaching leadership from a text book, the course convenors asked organisations what were the characteristics of great leaders. From there a list was compiled and a series of different perspectives and experiences was constructed to explore those themes. For example, students attend the Conservatorium of Music for several days to work with musicians on creativity and teamwork. Time is also spent at the

Department of Philosophy looking at constructing compelling arguments or business cases. Senior military advisors talk to students about command and control and dispassionate leadership.

Former politician Geoff Gallup talks to students about the political perspective of leadership, and a short stint at Sydney College of the Arts covers the creation of meaning and narratives.

“It’s a highly different take on leadership,” says Prof. Styles. “There are elements of this in some MBAs but mostly it’s in short executive courses or customised programs. Because we’ve had this great opportunity to start with a blank piece of paper we can construct it from the ground up.”

Not for everyone

Although Prof. Styles expects people from all professional backgrounds to express an interest in the course, he admits it’s not for everyone. “There are terrific MBAs out there and they are for a specific person.

We’re looking for people who are well qualified managers who have the potential to be high level strategic leaders. We’re looking at 15–20 people for the first cohort – a small group,” he says.

Alongside a minimum of 10 years’ work experience, the course is targeting students with “a threshold level of SKA – skills, knowledge and attributes”.

Prof. Styles acknowledges the program is excellent for people who have been a functional specialist – a marketing director or HR director – who now wants to step up to more general management.

“We do cover off the core knowledge of each discipline, but that’s not the main emphasis,” he says.

Just like other MBA courses, students will either nominate themselves or HR directors and senior line managers will build this course into their overall leadership development program and identify people who may be suitable.

Not surprisingly, the course is priced at the upper end of the MBA spectrum. There are two components: fees of $84,000; and the residential costs (accommodation, food) of $21,000. As comparisons, Melbourne Business School

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“We’re bringing context into the learning experience rather than separating it. There has been criticism of some MBAs that have separated the technical learning part from the context in which they are applied” – Prof. Chris Styles offers a similar course for $100,000, while overseas options range from $150,000 to $160,000.

“It’s difficult to compare this course with a standard MBA,” says Prof.

Styles. “The real comparison is executive programs where people go off for four days or one week.”

As an additional incentive for organisations to invest in this particular course, each student must complete an MBA report, which is worked on throughout the 18 month study period.

The student will work with their organisation to identify a key strategic issue that the company has and at the conclusion of the course the student must present this internal consulting project to senior management.

Prof. Styles believes the course provides a unique and much-needed twist on traditional MBAs. “We had a CEO of a large financial institution tell us he had terrific financial engineers, but he feared they were a step or two away from being great leaders. This course will push people like that to that next level,” he says. HC www.hcamag.com

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OHS shakeup: Clarity at last With long-mooted OHS legislation harmonisation finally on the horizon, Moshe Woods looks towards an OHS future involving more accountability and greater depth of reporting

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n 2008, the Federal Government brought together an expert panel to review occupational health and safety laws across Australia. The panel was asked to examine the principal occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation of each Australian State, Territory and Commonwealth jurisdiction and to identify best practice, common practice and inconsistencies. It was also asked to make recommendations on “the optimal structure and content of a model OHS Act that is capable of being adopted in all jurisdctions”.

In other words, the aim of the review was to identify ways of reducing the amount of legislation (and thus paperwork) that companies have to deal with by instituting nationally consistent OHS laws.

The panel made its final recommendations in January 2009. Just over two months later the government established Safe Work Australia, an independent body formed to take those recommendations and begin development

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of a national OHS policy. Since then, Safe Work Australia has been preparing a model OHS legislation exposure draft which will be made available for comment this month. Over the coming two years, Safe Work Australia will develop the legislation, regulations and codes of conduct as it works towards a December 2011 deadline for implementation of the OHS Act and regulations across all Commonwealth jurisdictions.

The impact on business

The goal of national harmonisation of OHS laws is to remove many layers of legislative complexity for businesses. It is also expected to reduce the reams of paperwork currently required of OHS staff as they contend with multiple State and Territory laws. But the introduction of best practices and a model Act will require more than a few changes to the way that organisations currently meet their OHS obligations. Although final legislation won’t be available for close to two years, the review panel’s recommendations

provide a clear indication of what businesses should prepare for.

The biggest impacts will be in the area of accountability with calls for more visibility into OHS practices, better communication and enhanced reporting.

Key inclusions in the new legislation are expected to be: 1. Enhanced duty of care provisions and risk assessments to identify and eliminate risk to employees. Duty holders will be encouraged to apply risk mitigation at their workplace, based on a set of priority actions referred to as the ‘Hierarchy of Control Measures.’

This can be used as a guide to assist the duty holder to identify, in order of priority, the actions that can be applied to eliminate, substitute or isolate components of activities that present a risk. The process can also engineer (build-in) appropriate control measures with the least preferred of the control measures being administrative (signs and notices) and the provision of personal protective equipment.

OHS

2. A collaborative approach to safety, one that involves both employees and employers. After all, employees are best placed to point out potential workplace risks and hazards. Workplace committees that keep employees in touch with a ‘good’ safe culture are just the starting point. Collaboration also requires openness and accessibility among key roles such as OHS staff, workplace representatives and those on the committee. This is where tools such as notification systems, e-mail and reporting solutions can help to systematise communication and ensure that every participant meets their obligations. Systems also offer the opportunity to introduce greater transparency.

3. The variety of legislation and regulations may be reduced but strictures around record keeping are unlikely to let up.

Activity relating to OHS will need to be thoroughly documented from beginning to end.

4. Bigger fines and more stringent prosecutions of organisations where OHS negligence can be proven.

The top level view

Company boards are unlikely to find many real surprises in the coming legislation. These days directors are used to considering their responsibilities from a perspective of the triple bottom line – profit, environment and OHS risk management. Every Top 50 company has policies relating to the environment and OHS, and management understands the need to ensure worker and company compliance in a practical sense.

One change that may occur – particularly given the risk mitigation onus now being placed on duty holders such as people in control of import, supply, design or manufacture – is that big business may decide to only deal with organisations that have clearly documented OHS policies, quality procedures and risk management policies.

It’s an approach already common in some government circles. Construction companies, for example, must conform to

Federal Safety Commissioner accreditation and audit criteria. Failure to do so means they cannot be considered for any State of Federal Government funded projects.

Creating a safety first culture

Government interest in OHS best practices follows a renewed thrust by industry in recent years to instil a safety culture in the workplace. It’s an approach that companies have realised more than pays off when employees begin to instinctively consider safety considerations in their day-to-day activities.

However, a lot of time and effort goes into planning a good OHS or risk management strategy. It can be a resource intensive exercise – so much so that many companies and most big businesses employ external consultants to manage the process.

The first step is to define the scope of the strategy. This can be as extensive or as minimal as the business requires. One popular stratagem is modelled on the cooperative and interdependent behaviour of meerkats. Staff are asked to remain vigilant and to alert others if they spot a potential hazard.

The major components commonly used in any OHS or risk management strategy include: yy development of safety and risk management programs to mitigate risk and ensure staff are kept safe yy safety awareness activities to promote the program among all levels of company staff, enlisting their support for the collaborative safety effort yy posters, signs and corporate advertising which promotes awareness of the company’s safety first requirements to customers, contractors and other business partners yy a system to manage alerts, notifications and related documents Throughout, communication is key.

For example, organisations frequently convey their safety message using catch phrases such as ‘Safety First’ or ‘Zero Harm’.

If a serious incident occurs, safety alerts provide a means of informing the

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entire workforce of the incident and how, where and when it happened. It’s a way of sharing the lessons learned and reducing the possibility of any recurrence.

Communication is also critical when a high risk hazard is identified. Emails alert managers or supervisors to the hazard while automated notifications ensure that all appropriate staff are kept apprised of the situation. At the same time, risk hazards can be escalated to management should no action be undertaken.

Once again, this is where a software package and notification system can be particularly helpful, ensuring transparency in how a business addresses its incidents and hazards. It’s a good way of ensuring that your risk management strategy is working and that nothing falls through the gaps.

Monitor the changes

Harmonisation of OHS legislation will deliver benefits to Australian businesses, particularly to organisations operating across State and Territory borders. During the next two years, expect to see a flow of announcements as draft legislation and draft regulations are made available for review. Keep abreast of industry pronouncements on these drafts and evaluate what the changes may mean for your organisation.

However, the general thrust of the changes is already known and businesses are already preparing for an OHS future involving more accountability and greater depth of reporting. Taking steps now to instil a risk management culture will not only make the transition to the final legislation much smoother; it is also likely to lead to staff safety and productivity dividends. HC

About the author Moshe Woods is sales director at Australian Workplace Software, a ComOps company

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expert insight – corporate communication

Communication breakdown?

M any companies are now reaping the benefits of improved internal communication, such as engagement, productivity, retention and profitability. So ensuring employee communication is a strategic priority should now really be a no-brainer for all Australian organisations.

If anecdotal evidence isn’t enough, there’s also proof it’s good for the bottom line. Watson Wyatt’s Global Communication ROI 2007/2008 study* states that companies with the most effective employee communication programs provided a 91% total return to shareholders, compared with only 62% for those communicating least effectively. But are all Australian companies maximising this opportunity?

It’s well known that effective internal communication is a key contributor to increasing employee engagement levels, and is critical in driving that all-important discretionary effort. In a world where retention and improving employee productivity remain a key focus, HR professionals must work hand-inhand with, and proactively support, communicators to ensure effective internal communication is a ‘must-have’ not a ‘niceto-have’.

It’s simple. If employees fully understand company direction and strategy, and more importantly the role they’ll play on the journey, they’re more likely to be travelling in the same direction. They’re also more likely to be emotionally engaged and will also have

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a stronger sense of loyalty. Periods of global economic uncertainty have fuelled the need for robust internal employee communication programs because fear replaces confidence when people begin to worry about their own jobs and futures.

But recent research carried out by Impact Employee Communications, titled The Inside Story, investigated the changing internal communication landscape in Australia and identified that three out of every 10 companies affected by the downturn were not talking to employees about the likely impact.

If organisations are not practising open and upfront communication with employees – especially during periods of highly publicised economic downturn – they are inviting rumour and speculation.

Speak up early!

The Inside Story study also found managing major change is moving up the organisational communication agenda now and over the coming months. Whether that’s communicating restructures, head count reductions, remuneration and benefit changes or budget restrictions, HR professionals must be prepared to work on an increased number of projects requiring support from their communication colleagues.

It’s well documented that a critical success factor in achieving successful change outcomes is to communicate as early as possible.

Organisations choosing not to communicate proactively about the road ahead will suffer tougher challenges during and after changes are implemented, with loss of trust being a key risk. Robust planning, process and most importantly commitment to proactive communication by leaders in all pockets of the business is critical.

expert insight – corporate communication

Be seen & equip the frontline

Success relies on the visibility and ongoing involvement of leaders and their ability to communicate a clear vision, building on successes rather than simply focusing on fixing short-term problems.

The good news? Impact’s research shows that around one in seven organisations feel their CEOs and executive teams have become more visible this year. However, given we know employees have a strong desire to hear information from their direct managers, the concern has been the change communication skills of middle managers and frontline leaders – which were perceived to be much lower than those of the CEO and executive teams.

With major change on the increase, HR teams must include the upskilling of middle management and leadership teams on how to manage change, incorporating communication into training plans. This will ensure these key communicators fully understand the critical role they’ll play in empowering employees to accept and take ownership of any change.

Living the values!

A recent Australian Gallup poll** showed that 79% of the workforce is either not engaged, or even worse, is actively disengaged in their work. With general disengagement levels already so high, we’re seeing greater attention being paid to organisational values as a means to re-engage employees and promote the right behaviours.

Encouragingly for HR teams trying to drive values ownership across organisations, our research shows values have increased in importance from a communication perspective, with 42% of organisations including values in their top five communication priorities, compared to only 24% in the previous months.

A word of warning when working with communications teams to develop values programs which will work: values cannot just be a poster on the wall or something only to be discussed in front of customers.

The key success factor is leadership.

Leaders must demonstrate values in action, make values-based decisions and

encourage teams to do the same, ensuring values are authentic and have integrity.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure

Historically, measurement of the effectiveness of internal communication has slipped by the wayside, with leaders preferring to rely on their gut instinct as to the effectiveness of communication.

However, in addition to employee engagement or climate surveys, six in every 10 organisations are measuring employee awareness, understanding and interpretation of communication messages.

Not knowing will leave organisations with messages that may fail to resonate.

All’s not a Twitter

Thankfully, gone are the days when ‘cutting-edge’ internal communication was a newsletter (in colour!). Rapid advances in technology mean there are now a raft of social media channels to choose from, particularly useful for businesses with more of a Gen Y and X demographic or those with a disparate workforce where engagement is particularly challenging.

Using social media drives transparency and two-way communication and forces organisations to be more collaborative.

Despite the current social media explosion, internally, social media tools are yet to take off in Australia. Respondent organisations that participated in the research did not anticipate a significant change in social media use over the next 12 months.

However, organisations cannot afford to ignore the ‘next generation watercooler’. To succeed in the digital world internally and truly harness its power there are three simple steps to follow. yy Develop and embed social media guidelines. yy Develop a digital influence strategy and build support from leaders. yy Start listening and engaging employees through a range of portals, wikis, blogs, podcasts, e-learning tools and online events. This medium can truly drive more collaborative and open cultures within organisations because it demonstrates a high level of trust in them.

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Conclusion

Organisations are getting smarter about utilising internal communication to achieve business goals across Australia.

Internal communicators are becoming better placed and closer to key decisionmakers and are having better line of sight to the critical business issues requiring communication – and anecdotally they are working more effectively with HR teams.

On the whole, the foundations for effective communication are in place and leaders are making themselves more visible and accessible to employees. Organisations are also investing more time embedding their values.

There remains, however, room for improvement – whether that comes through preparing employees for change, educating on the importance of values for a company or upskilling middle managers to communicate more effectively. Organisations whose HR and communications teams work together to plan better for change will have a greater opportunity to secure the trust of their workforce and will reap the benefits in terms of business performance. HC References *Watson Wyatt, ‘2007/2008 Communication ROI Study: Secrets of Top Performers: How Companies With Highly Effective Employee Communication Differentiate Themselves’, p18 **Fiona Smith, ‘Workers as disengaged as ever’, Australian Financial Review, 10 February 2009, p59

About the author Tam Sandeman is managing director of internal communication consultancy, Impact Employee Communications, an Ogilvy PR Worldwide Company. To download a free copy of The Inside Story report, go to www. impact.com.au or call 02 8281 3222 www.hcamag.com

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ARCHITECT OF CHANGE

It’s well known that HR plays an important role in organisational restructure. This month’s profiled HR professional has been at the heart of change in his organisation. Iain Hopkins reports

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ean Edwards, national manager, people, culture and legal at Nissan, admits he is a relative newcomer to HR, having entered the profession in 2002 following roles in sales and retail management in the telecommunications industry. He was, he says, frustrated during his time as a line or revenue generating manager by top-down management initiatives that “inhibited my business”. Rather than remaining powerless and at the beck and call of distant business leaders, Edwards decided to take action. “I wanted to get involved and make changes,” he says. “Although HR was also part of that management structure, I felt they had a good connection with the employees. For me it’s not about the fluffy side of HR. I’m not a that kind of HR practitioner – I’m interested in making a real business impact.”

To that end, Edwards returned to study (while working full-time) to obtain a Masters of Business (HRM) in order to have the qualifications needed to back up his ambitions. He then used his management experience to move into HR. “My first gig was training and recruitment in the telco industry, and I then expanded that role to cover generalist work – industrial relations, WorkCover, performance management, contract

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management, and so on. I’ve also worked in different industries including a global engineering company, the gaming industry and government. I’ve got a different window to different industries, which has helped me in my work with Nissan.”

HR and legal

Edwards joined Nissan as the national HR manager, but any expectation that this would be a straightforward HR role were quickly dashed. As his current job title suggests, the organisation was undergoing significant change – and so was the mandate of Edwards’ original role. “Part of my role was to help drive a significant change program as part of the organisational restructure. As part of the restructure I inherited not just HR but also the legal element,” Edwards explains.

He admits the HR/legal mix is interesting, but Edwards was not out of his league. As part of his tertiary studies, he had also completed a Masters in Workplace Employment Law, and his previous roles had involved contract management. Even though his expertise is more focused on employment and workplace law, he maintains that the fundamental disciplines are the same – it’s also about providing direction, he says. “I suppose I know enough to be dangerous,”

he laughs. “A lot of my role at the moment is to bring in compliance, systems and processes and build the foundations – the mechanisms of dispute handling and providing what’s required from a legal aspect to close down contracts. For example, we’re dealing with a $200m contract at the moment and we had to take it back to square one because it lacked the commercial elements alongside the legal elements. This is where I can drag HR into the legal side – the commercial side. Everything has to have a commercial outcome, but you need to push and use the legal mechanisms to achieve those.”

There is certainly enough on the legal front to keep Edwards busy, with the automotive industry being investigated by the ACCC for component pricing, coupled with enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) negotiations, Fair Work changes and ongoing evolution of workplace legislation.

Building new foundations

Also high on the agenda is Nissan’s organisational restructure. The restructure is in its final stages and Edwards is restricted in how much he can reveal. To provide an overview, he says that following the 1992 closure of Nissan’s Clayton factory in south Victoria, the company

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continued to operate a manufacturing business model as opposed to a sales and marketing model. “We’ve burnt the business model to the ground and built it from the ground up with the focus point being the end users: the people buying the cars at the dealerships,” he explains.

HR has been intimately involved in the restructure, to the point where Edwards suggests HR has been the architect behind the project. “Automotive is a very conservative industry. It doesn’t like change. The best way to successfully change is to make sure you have key stakeholder engagement. You build it ‘out-in’. To overcome that conservatism, we’ve reversed it and built it from ‘in to out’. So we built the architecture of the business, we identified key stakeholders, we brought them in bit by bit – for example the managing director and the COO – we got buy in from them, and then we built outwards. It’s not a textbook way to change but we had to be very flexible and adaptable to get this change through,” he says.

The company, which includes business

groups such as Renault, Nissan Financial Services Australia, the Nissan Casting Plant and the national Nissan Motor Company, has gone from 600 employees to 500. The HR team has also shrunk from a team of seven to three employees. Far from this downsizing being a hindrance, Edwards views it as an opportunity. His team has carefully analysed the skills and competencies of the company’s employees from the general management group down, and has developed new ways to work.

Nissan has successfully partnered with Entity Solutions as a third party talent provider. Despite the headcount restrictions and the restructuring, the company has had to continue ‘business as usual’ as seamlessly as possible. Edwards believes Entity allowed this to happen, primarily through supporting the core Nissan team with contractors for projects.

“We use Entity for a number of phases,” he explains. “One is to engage contractors on a project basis – bringing people on for a short period of time. The other area is to help employees transition

In his own words…

What do you consider to be your biggest greatest career achievement so far?

Getting the legal department under my umbrella. It’s expanded the scope of my role and it’s an interesting combination. It gives me greater responsibility and greater business impact. That’s what makes me tick. I have direct impact and I can see direct upsides from the work I do.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your career?

I would also list the legal aspect of my role. It’s taken me out of my comfort zone and provided greater challenges but it has also provided continuous learning and made me aware that I need to go back and pick up some further legal subjects.

It’s continuing to push me to strive and drive my career forward.

Where do you see HR as a profession heading?

I think Australia is a bit behind other countries but I think HR will be a stronger voice within organisations. HR will have greater longer term impact on business.

The days of fluffy HR are gone. HR now has a direct link into top line sales or bottom line profitability, and the demands are increasingly to demonstrate the value of that link. HR practitioners will learn to be generalists not just in HR but in business – marketing, sales, operations. We will have to be experts in all areas.

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out of the organisation. People throw around the term ‘business partner’ quite loosely but for me, Entity is a true business partner. They come into the business, they talk to our contractors, and they are willing to adjust the terms and conditions to suit our needs. As an example, we offer our employees a program that allows their families to lease cars from us at a cheap rate. We also offer that entitlement to our contractors. Entity Solutions manages that for us. They also provide constant reporting and tracking back into our business. They manage our contractors but they manage them with us so it’s a seamless exercise. The only difference a lot of these people will see is Entity Solutions on their payslip, but there’s essentially no real difference between Nissan management and Entity management.”

The HR team, although reduced, is now able to concentrate on strategic issues rather than day-to-day administration.

“The core business operates through our full-time employees, but we also have contractors coming in for six or nine or months to work on projects. We also have industry-based learning students to supplement the team,” says Edwards.

He has also looked at systems and processes and has engaged the IT department to build systems to create efficiencies and productivity gains.

“Where we’ve cut business groups down or changed business groups we’ve supported that with technology, which helps to maintain the focus of the project.”

Unique challenges

Although Nissan no longer manufactures vehicles in Australia, it continues to operate a manufacturing plant that produces components including gearbox housing, oil pans, etc. “It’s a marginal arm of the business but it’s still important to our operations. By producing castings for parts of vehicles we ensure we maintain cheap prices for Nissan vehicles. The parts are manufactured here and are then shipped off overseas,” Edwards says.

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Like any manufacturing operation in Australia, Edwards admits there are challenges regarding the cost of operations. “There are fluctuations in the cost of metals and of course the Aussie dollar. Forty-eight per cent of the motor company’s costs are labour costs, so that’s a balancing act as well,” he says.

“We certainly look at ways to keep labour costs down but also engagement up. That’s the balance – to make sure you keep that employer value proposition and branding but also not cripple the business with labour costs. You still want to attract the highest qualify talent you can, but also limit costs to the bottom line.”

The question needs to be asked: with so many contractors moving in and out of the business, does the unique cultural DNA suffer? Edwards doesn’t believe so.

“You try to develop high performance workplace systems and teams so we’re

bringing in contractors who are of a high standard. It’s also how you use them. We use them for transitioning, for specific projects. That’s part of the business, part of the culture. If you did that with fulltime employees they might feel insecure and start to panic. However, it becomes second nature when you’re talking about third party engagement because they know it’s for a specific project – they see the outcomes because they are fully involved in those outcomes. We’re not an overly large business so everything is open and transparent. We promote that through our culture.”

The HR pillars

With so many challenges, it might be tempting to lose sight of traditional HR tasks. Alongside the EBA negotiations, Edwards and his team have also looked at system and process re-engineering

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and day-to-day HR activities including maintenance of the talent pipeline, employee learning & development and succession planning – the “HR pillars”, as Edwards calls them. “You can’t lose focus of what you’re doing. You still need to ensure you’re remaining ahead of the game. The main focus is to maintain competitive edge – that’s something we’re very mindful of.”

Edwards is proud of his work so far at Nissan, but he admits the true measure of success for the restructure will be six or 12 months down the track. “When it comes to measuring HR initiatives, you need time to measure that success effectively,” he says. “It’s the same with the legal department – we’re not going to see immediate rewards for every change we put in place. A lot of HR people work for today, not tomorrow. At Nissan we are focused on tomorrow,” he concludes. HC

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teambuilder

LEGAL EAGLE

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Photo: Thilo Pulch, www.pulchphotography.com

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teambuilder

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With unprecedented experience in complex M&As and other corporate upheavals, this month’s teambuilder is powering ahead in the legal profession

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ife is a trial by fire…that’s what they say. For Gareth Bennett, director of people and development at law firm Freehills, his early career was a bit like a trial by fire: a search for the career he wanted. “My career in HR came from doing a whole series of things I didn’t enjoy,” he says.

“I started my career in the UK where I worked for local and central government.

Working in a non-performance-driven government organisation teaches you a lot about what you don’t want to do,” he laughs.

Finding his passion

Bennett quickly realised that his primary interest was what people can do for an organisation. He still considers this the central element of any business strategy.

“I’ve never considered this title of ‘human resources’ to be accurate. It’s more about people and their development, and how we make them integral to the business strategy. At the end of the day that’s where your key differentiator comes from,” he explains.

To that end, Bennett served his HR apprenticeship at what was then the best possible HR environment – Ford Motor Co. “It shows you how long ago that was,” he says, “but back then it was regarded as the finest HR education in the world, right across the board. The fact that I spent 15 years with Ford in Britain, Europe and the US, indicates it was a good education.”

During his time at Ford, Bennett undertook a wide range of generalist and specialist roles, from remuneration and reward through to frontline employee relations roles. “It was all very cerebral but also an adrenalin rush at the same time,” he says. More importantly, Bennett had the opportunity to witness firsthand some significant M&A activity, such as Ford’s

purchase of AC Cars, and its acquisition of a stake in Aston Martin and Jaguar.

It was only when Ford started offering him jobs in Vietnam, India and China that Bennett – with two young children in tow – started to reconsider his options. His career took another path when he landed a job in the UK working for AMP, which eventually lured him to Australia in 1998.

Again, his timing was perfect, as he was exposed to a range of challenging projects like the Pearl takeover and later the battle with GIO. He’s also possibly one of the few people to have worked with AMP CEOs George Trumbull, Paul Batchelor and Andrew Mohl. Bennett holds Mohl in particular in high regard. “We started at AMP on the same day. He’s a great leader and he’s great at creating teams. I’ve got the utmost respect for him,” he says.

These experiences have helped to shape his view of HR. “I consider myself a business person first and an HR person second. I see HR as vital to business strategy, and that’s the way I can make the biggest contribution to the business, rather than ‘HR for HR’s sake’,” he says.

After four years with energy giant AGL (which was going through its merger/demerger with Alinta), Bennett joined Freehills in 2007. Not surprisingly, he was attracted to the role because in many ways the success of the business relies on the people within it – in short, his long-standing ethos in fully formed practice.

“There is no product – we don’t make anything – so our competitive advantage and our whole business strategy has to be built around people. Lucky for me, the managing partners and the board believe that as well.”

Bennett reports to Gavin Bell, the CEO and managing partner, and to

Peter Butler, the managing partner for people. The firm employs just under 2,000 and operates offices in four locations in Australia and also Singapore.

“I have a great team and we look after the entire people agenda, which involves developing the culture of the firm, the values of the firm, making sure our business decisions are based on those values, and equipping our people to work within that culture. This includes everything from building leadership skills to developing teams, and building a sustainable business for the future,” he explains.

The legal profession

The legal sector is notorious both for its high pressured environment and the competition for talent, which sees top-tier firms going head to head by offering a wealth of employee benefits – many of which have initiated in the legal sector and spread to other industries.

Bennett is not fooled by the current economic downturn, and notes that the present climate has only masked the war for talent. It rages on, he says. “There will always be a market for really good people.

Although overall attrition rates have come down, your good people will always back themselves and can make a huge difference in markets like this. We must do a good job in identifying who our key people are and make sure we give them the development so they stay here.”

In an industry where competitors are likely to match the ‘selling points’ of a firm tit-for-tat, Bennett believes it’s important to differentiate via the culture. “You can get a top class education and career in Mallesons, Allens, or many of the other top firms,” he admits. “So really it’s being able to express to the marketplace and to new graduates and lateral hires, just what www.hcamag.com

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it means to work at Freehills. What is that culture, how do you define it, what will you find when you work here? It can be subtle things that make a difference because the salaries and the work itself are likely to be similar. The differentiator

achievements, sometimes to the detriment of team morale. Freehills has tackled this problem head on. Not only is teamwork one of the firm’s key values, but this is backed up by an emphasis on crossfunctional teams, building relationships

“The one thing I can’t stand is HR speak that has to be translated into business speak. We are a business team who happen to bring specialist skills to the table to help the business” – Gareth Bennett is the way you feel about being here at Freehills – the dedication to fulfillment and excellence, and the fact that we truly aspire to create an exceptional experience for each other and our clients.”

Bennett says that HR plays an important role in ensuring employees do not work themselves into the ground in such a high stakes environment. But he is quick to clarify that what some people find energising, others may find overwhelming – and that’s what leads that person to be in that environment: “that desire to achieve, that desire to compete and be the best”.

Therefore HR’s role, Bennett notes, is to ensure that healthy adrenalin doesn’t build into stress, depression and other health issues. “Our job is to make sure it stays as something to motivate people, that it’s something they can build on,” he says. “It’s important for us to build vitality and resilience into people’s careers from day one. We make them aware of those factors, we help them to build on those motivational factors, and we help them to look out for themselves and each other. Vitality and resilience is a big part of anything we put in place, whether it’s graduate recruitment, induction or leadership development.”

Teamwork

Law firms traditionally place a lot of emphasis on individual efforts or

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with clients and extending those relationships across a whole group.“Where we have a team approach to issues the client benefits from that, and the team benefits from working together. It can be as simple as taking time out to reflect on what works well across the team, and issuing simple ‘thank-yous’ across those teams This year, for example, we have a program which looks at the contribution to the success of others.

The actual thanking of people and the conversations that have sparked from that have been a fantastic motivator for the organisation and the people within it,” Bennett says.

Future plans

Not surprisingly, the fallout from the GFC remains at the top of the agenda for the majority of law firms. Several months ago Allens Arthur Robinson had accepted 114 voluntary redundancies, while as recently as July Mallesons cut stuff numbers by 5%.

Blake Dawson, Minter Ellison and DLA Phillips Fox have also been hit.

While Freehills has not been immune, Bennett is confident that the business strategy laid out when he arrived at the firm will see them through the storm.

“Of course everyone must factor in the GFC, but we have a clear strategy for the future. We tested and retested that strategy against the economic conditions

we now find ourselves in. It’s still realistic, and it’s the right path to follow. We’re giving people a clear direction, a clear vision of what the future might look like, and then making small adjustments as we move through.

“The past year has been the year of making sure we survive, and my strategy for the next year is making sure we thrive – ensuring we have the right talent in place to take advantage of the upswing when it comes so we can explode out of the blocks.”

To that end, Bennett says that it is critical for the firm to maintain the inflow of talent via its graduate recruitment program. “We grow people through the organisation over a long period. Every now and then we will recruit laterals into specialist positions or areas where we can build the business further, but most of the new talent comes through the graduate program,” he says.

Bennett is not taking his eye off the retention ball either, both through career development and keeping in touch with the Freehills alumni network. “We must make sure we’re developing our people.

The firm runs on intellectual capability and motivation, so we must make sure we continue to build on our talent. Anybody who believes that due to the downturn there isn’t a talent retention problem (and therefore you don’t need to pay attention to your people) is missing the point entirely,” he says.

As an experienced HR professional, Bennett is well positioned to voice his thoughts on the future of HR as a profession.

He believes HR is just like any other area – it exists to deliver a business strategy – and it’s therefore vital that HR professionals understand the business.

“The one thing I can’t stand is HR speak that has to be translated into business speak. We are a business team who happen to bring specialist skills to the table to help the business and that’s the way it should be,” he concludes. HC

7-8 october 2009 stamford plaza

B R I S B A N E

ASIA-PACIFIC’S LEADING HR and management EVENT

skilling Up

BRISBANE

HR professionals to remain competitive, productive & successful

At HR Summit Brisbane, hear presentations from: •

Livingstones Australia

Queensland’s ‘The Best Job in the World’ •

Pfizer Australia

HR transformation •

IBM

‘The New World of Work’

Hear success stories and practical insights from leading global brands on how to: » ADD value to HR practices » UPSKILL your workforce to meet demands » BUILD strategies toward organisational alignment » IDENTIFY top leaders and recruit the best talent » BALANCE flexible work arrangements » STRENGHTEN succession planning procedures and talent management » ENERGISE training and development sessions » INTEGRATE HR with your company’s growth plans » WIN the battle on skills shortages and plan for the future » BOOST productivity & performance » TRACK latest industrial relations, migration and workplace agreement reforms

•

I nstitute of Executive Coaching Up-skilling and coaching techniques

•

H eritage Building Society Long term employee retention

Register online before 7 September 2009 and save

$220

Align your HR activities with strong leadership and best-practice skills from The HR Summit Event partner

Bronze sponsor

Exclusive legal sponsor

Official publication

Organised by

Register online at www.hrsummit.com.au

HRSUMMIT 09

Day 1: Wednesday 7 October 2009 8:30am Registration opens

11:30am

9:00am Welcome and opening remarks from the Chairperson

Fair work examined for HR managers

When the dust settles: will HR be ready when the economy improves?

HR departments are changing to accommodate the current state of the market.

Redundancies and terminations are on the rise, staff engagement and retention are low priority and training and development budgets have been slashed. When this cycle ends what state will your reputation be in?

Will top performers leave when the market improves in 2010? This session is a call to action to prepare now for your organisation’s HR future.

Des Tubridy, director, Quantum Management Indicators 9:15am

CASE STUDY

The recruitment and assessment of candidates for Queensland’s: The Best Job in the World With a salary of $AUD150,000.00, Tourism Queensland offered a job that entailed spending six months living rent-free on Hamilton Island, exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef and reporting on experiences through the media. Hear insights into the strategy that made this marketing campaign a legitimate and effective global recruitment project utilising viral technologies. Hear first- hand the how Livingstones’ mitigated the issues of potential legal risk associated with conducting a prominent and large-scale international recruitment process.

Janice Schloss, organisational psychologist, Livingstones Australia and Alanna Simonis, marketing manager international, Tourism Queensland

This highly practical session will cover key aspects of the new Fair Work Act that are relevant to all HR managers, advisors and consultants, and provide tips on what businesses need to do to ensure they comply with the new requirements. In particular, this session will detail changes to the unfair dismissal regime, the new ‘general protections’ and the National Employment Standards.

Bronwyn Maynard, senior associate and team leader, Harmers Workplace Lawyers and Kristin Duff, solicitor, Harmers Workplace Lawyers 12:15pm

Change management leadership: building block strategies toward organisational alignment When executives decided to change the brand name of Pioneer to Hanson, it was the catalyst that sparked a new alignment within all business units. Hanson initiated new engagement strategies with their workforce and their customers to achieve greater market share. Learn how Hanson led change through new branding and aligned business strategy with human resources and mitigated any conflict that arose from the business transformation.

Daniel Cooper, general manager, northern region, Hanson Construction Materials Pty Ltd 1:00pm Luncheon reception 2:00pm

Strategic workforce planning; IBM’s ‘New World of Work’

10:15am

HR transformation - the Pfizer journey Pfizer is mid-way through a significant change journey in modernising it’s HR function. At the same time the world’s largest drugs maker is going through a massive organisational change to a global business unit structure and undertaking a major acquisition. This session will cover: • The business rationale for change • The vision of end state • The creation of Centres of Excellence • The journey towards employee and manager self-service • The changing role of the people manager • Stakeholder management and mindset • The view from today: looking back / looking forward Steve Rowe, senior director, HR Asia region manager & operational support, Pfizer Australia

Today’s business executives face a host of pressures, including volatile markets, global competition, and the emergence of new business models. These are forcing organisations to be more responsive to shifting market needs; more flexible in how they operate and more focused on their core competencies. Success in any of these areas is dependent on the organisation’s ability to develop a workforce that can adapt to these changes.

Hear IBM’s case study of success in addressing key focus areas to help transform your workforce and take its performance to the next level.

Robert Orth, director human resources, IBM Australia/New Zealand

“Very interesting – the common themes appearing increases credibility of speakers and relevance to current climate” HR manager, delegate of Sydney HR Summit 2009

11.15am Refreshments and networking break

Introducing your HR leaders Des Tubridy director Quantum Management Indicators

Janice Schloss

Steve Rowe

Bronwyn Maynard

Kristin Duff

Daniel Cooper

Robert Orth

Philip Bullock

Yvette Bartlett

organisational psychologist Livingstones Australia

senior director, HR Asia region - manager & operational support Pfizer Australia

senior associate & team leader Harmers Workplace Lawyers

solicitor Harmers Workplace Lawyers

general manager, northern region Hanson Construction Materials Pty Ltd

director human resources IBM Australia/New Zealand

chair Skills Australia

general manager, performance & culture Chamber of Commerce & Industry Queensland

BRISBANE Day 1: continued

7-8 october 2009 stamford plaza BRISBANE

Day 2: Thursday 8 October 2009 8:30am Registration opens and opening remarks from the Chairperson

2:30pm

Winning the battle on skills shortages: new strategies for skilling Australia for the future

9:15am

Upskilling & coaching techniques for HR managers HR professionals are often given the task of implementing a coaching culture or enhancing an organisation’s coaching capability in order to increase engagement and performance. To be successful, they need a clear, practical and transferable approach to coaching. This session is designed to meet the specific needs of the HR team in an organisation. Its aim is to educate HR professionals in how coaching fits within a learning organisation culture and provide them with the skills and tools to enhance coaching capability within their organisation.

Hilary Armstrong, director, Institute of Executive Coaching

WORKSHOP

HR directors need skilled workers for current, emerging and future workforce development. Learn how to identify the skill need and retrain, maintain and enhance Australia’s productivity and prosperity.

• Identify training priorities to respond to those needs • Retrain and upskill staff • Improve productivity and competitiveness • Identify and address skills shortages • Promote the development of a highly skilled workforce Philip Bullock, chair, Skills Australia .

3:00pm

Boosting productivity and achieving greater results with fewer people

10:15am

Increasing employee productivity is critically important during times of recession.

Often people have more work, a smaller budget and fewer resources to achieve targets. HR professionals must guide employees to spend their time productively toward the accomplishment of organisational goals and focus on key priorities.

This session will focus on shifting performance up and provide innovative strategies for increasing productivity within a lean operations framework.

Yvette Bartlett, general manager, performance & culture, Chamber of Commerce & Industry Queensland 3:30pm Refreshments and networking break 4:00pm

WORKSHOP

Engaging employees in tough times Smart managers are realising that this is the time to capitalise on organisational strengths and pull together as a team. In this dynamic and interactive workshop discover: • Why you should be ramping up your engagement initiatives, not shelving them • How to avoid creating a survival mode mentality within your team • The pro’s and con’s of flexible work arrangements • How to coach managers to inspire and lead change • The skill of communicating reality without destroying motivation • The benefits of putting a microscope on your organisation • The necessity of mentorship programs at work • What to do when confronted with negative employees • How to avoid burn out and turn over Karen Schmidt, re-engagement expert, Let’s Grow 5:00pm – 6.00pm Networking drinks reception

Top strategies for long term employee retention & succession planning The best retention decision is a great hiring decision. Learn top tips from Heritage on selecting the right candidates, welcoming employees and assimilating them into the corporate culture. Understand how to communicate effectively with staff to recognise their career aspirations and professional goals. Hear proven methods for ensuring long term retention of your top performers by providing growth opportunities and building a great place to work.

• Retaining high performers • Linking talent with organisational strategy • Empowering your best people to achieve results • Developing a corporate culture of performance • Utilise mentorship programs • Maximising your people ROI Bob Hogarth, general manager, human resources, Heritage Building Society 11:00am Refreshments and networking break 11:30am

Do you speak dolphin? Lessons on employee engagement, reward and recognition •

Creating an environment where employees want to do their best Improving business productivity through engagement • Implementing a recognition framework • New low cost ideas to reward employees • Building a foundation of staff loyalty • Encouraging self- managed accountability • Optimising your workforce to meet demands • Effective communication and response to employee needs Ann-Maree O’Neill, managing director, Reasons 2 Reward Ann-Maree was the former group human resources manager of Warner Village Theme Parks •

12:15pm

12 proven strategies to energise training and development sessions Karen Schmidt

Hilary Armstrong

Bob Hogarth

Ann-Maree O’Neill

Marc Ratcliffe

re-engagement expert Let’s grow

director Institute of Executive Coaching

general manager HR Heritage Building Society

managing director Reasons 2 Reward

CEO & founder MRWED Training & Assessment

As HR budgets are under scrutiny, learn how to leverage training and development through fun and thoughtful games. This session will show you several HR-inspired games and exercises that you can implement at your offices for zero cost, to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Marc Ratcliffe, CEO & founder, MRWED Training & Assessment 1:00pm Conference adjourns

Register online at www.hrsummit.com.au